Check-in Check-out

Organisational consultant Fred Kofman argues that almost every meeting starts the wrong way: a sick child last night, a fender-bender on the way in, a deadline at noon, a pregnancy announcement — these are foremost in people's minds yet absent from the table, and the unspoken weight quietly degrades the work. His fix is the structured "check-in" and "check-out": a short ritual at the start and end where each person briefly names what they are bringing in and what they are taking away, so attention can return to the task.