Last week, I watched a team spend 90 minutes arguing about who forgot to update a shared document. Ninety minutes. On a document that took five minutes to fix. While their biggest client waited for an answer that was three weeks overdue. Instead of diving into the drama, I walked them through something I call the LATTE framework. We started with the first step: Look. Together, we identified the actual business problem they were trying to solve. The shift was immediate. You could literally see the tension leave the room. One person said, "I feel a lot better. I think we can actually work together now." Another admitted, "I was taking this personally. I thought you were working against me, but we're just approaching the same goal from different directions." Why Smart Teams Get Stuck on Stupid Things Experience isn't the problem. Teams stall because they avoid naming what's really going wrong. Everyone stays polite, hoping the conflict will magically disappear. It never does. Instead, it grows into time-sucking office drama that kills momentum and makes leadership question your team's effectiveness. When people spend energy defending their turf instead of solving problems, opportunities slip away. Meetings multiply, projects drag, and results disappear. The L.A.T.T.E. Method: Your Meeting Survival Guide L.A.T.T.E. stands for Look, Anticipate, Think, Talk, Evaluate. I built this framework for negotiations where millions of dollars were on the line, but honestly? It's even more powerful for everyday team meetings that have gone off the rails. Think of it like a GPS for conversations. Instead of letting everyone wander down random side streets of complaints and theories, you follow a route that actually gets you somewhere. | Step | Time | What You're Actually Doing | | Look | 10 minutes | Get everyone aligned on the actual business objective. Write one sentence that captures what you're really trying to accomplish. | | Anticipate | 10 minutes | Put the obvious problems on the table. Budget constraints, timing pressures, risk factors that everyone's thinking but not saying. | | Think | 15 minutes | Connect to real numbers. Pick metrics your company actually tracks. What are the numbers today? What do they need to be by quarter-end? | | Talk | 15 minutes | Craft your elevator pitch. One clear message that connects metrics to action. Could your CEO repeat this to the board without translation? | | Evaluate | 10 minutes | Document the decision. Who owns what? When's the first checkpoint? What questions need answers before you meet again? |
The result? Instead of leaving with that familiar sinking feeling of "what did we actually decide," everyone walks out knowing exactly what happens next. What Happens When You Make This a Habit The real payoff is meetings will get shorter. Work will moves faster. Side issues will stop hijacking your agenda. The teams that practice this approach create space for actual creativity while making their productivity visible to leadership. Try This Before Your Next Team Meeting If you're leading a team, start simple. Review the five L.A.T.T.E. steps. Write your business objective in one sentence before everyone sits down. Only invite people who can make decisions or execute them. Then guide the group through the hour. Clarity creates momentum. Once your team experiences it, they won't want to go back to the chaos. Ready to Stop the Meeting Madness? Watch my free 30-minute lightning lesson and learn how to negotiate complex work issues in just one hour using L.A.T.T.E. |
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