Meeting Priming Before Decision-Making
Every meeting has a priming phase and a decision phase; skipping or reversing them guarantees dysfunction
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
LaPointe splits meetings into two phases: priming (aligning on context, mode, and principles) and decision-making. Most teams skip priming entirely or run it in the wrong order, then discover mid-meeting they were never on the same page. Explicitly priming a meeting in under three minutes on its category, principles, and purpose removes the biggest source of wasted meeting time.
Origin
Evan LaPointe / CORE Sciences; he cites Amazon's narrative-memo ritual as a heavyweight version of the same wisdom and 'diamond-shaped thinking' (open then converge) as the correct sequence.
Core principles
- 01Assuming everyone enters with the same information, page, and intended outcome is a ludicrous assumption for most meetings
- 02Priming can be as short as three minutes and can even be written into the calendar invite
- 03Debating principles is far more productive than debating tactics rooted in misaligned principles
- 04CORE's programs show a 10-20% average time reclaim, saving people half a day to a full day per week
How to run it
- 1
Name the category of conversation
Before content, state what kind of meeting this is: generation of options, creative problem-solving, tactical problem-solving, or efficiency-seeking. Different categories demand different mindsets.
Pro tip Write this into the meeting invite so attendees arrive already primed rather than calibrating in the first ten minutes.
- 2
State the operating principles up front
Declare the principles that apply, e.g. 'are we honoring sacred cows or eating sacred cows here,' and whether the group optimizes for speed or accuracy. Surface these before tactics.
Pro tip If two people optimize on different principles (one for speed, one for accuracy) they will inevitably fight; resolve the principle first.
Watch out A tactical argument that is really a hidden principle disagreement is unresolvable until you go back to the principle.
- 3
Sequence expansion then convergence
Run the meeting as a diamond: open with expansionary thinking, converge in the second half. Do not open with convergence and then discover halfway that you must 'start over and remember why we're here.'
Pro tip If you hear 'let's start over again and remember why we're all here' mid-meeting, you reversed the order and did your priming too late.
Watch out Doing priming in the second half means it lands just as the meeting ends.
In the wild
LaPointe describes teams that open with convergence, cannot reconcile everyone's needs, and then mid-meeting say 'let's start over again and remember why we're all here,' doing the priming in the second half.
→ The priming arrives just in time for the meeting to end, wasting the session.
Common mistakes
Skipping priming entirely
Teams launch directly into decision-making assuming shared context that never existed, then are shocked to find they disagree on the basics.
Debating tactics instead of principles
Two people optimizing for different underlying objectives (speed vs accuracy) will have an unresolvable catfight until they revisit the principle level.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone who runs recurring meetings and feels they repeatedly stall or run over
Not ideal for
A genuine standing meeting where the group truly shares context and a single narrow decision
From the transcript
“meetings generally speaking are a combination of priming and decision-making”
“a lot of meetings kind of skip the priming step altogether they launch directly into decision”
“you've heard of like diamond shaped thinking let's open the meeting with kind of expansionary thought and let's end the second half of the meeting…”
“the average Delta is is between 10 and 20% so people save anywhere from a full half of a day to a full day per…”
“it's way better to have a debate about the principles than it is to have a debate about the tactics”
From the episode
Improve strategy, influence, and decision-making by understanding your brain
Evan LaPointe (founder of CORE Sciences)