Lisa Haneberg, at Management Craft, was curious about the time frame allotted for having a team create questions in a meeting. I was suggesting that the team create twelve questions in the short span of six minutes.

It’s a twist on “Work expands to fill the time allotted.” People will think quickly if you ask them to think quickly. While it sounds like an aggressive dynamic, my experience tells me that fifteen minutes yields no better results than six minutes. Especially in meetings, I err on the side of going too fast. If I need to slow down, most teams will raise their hand and tell me.

This brain dynamic is the topic for a recent book by Malcolm Gladwell, called Blink. “Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant, in the blink of an eye.” People will think quickly if you ask them to think quickly. -TF