You wrap up the meeting and it’s gone well. Lots of nodding. But…nothing happens.
Or perhaps you’ve heard: “We’ll pick this up next time”, once too often.
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. One tech firm L&D head told me: “It’s the same conversations in the same meetings, then everyone goes back to their desks and carries on as before. Bang, Q1 ends and we’re no closer to our outcomes”.
It’s not just frustrating. One HR leader revealed to me that when decisions stall at board level, it affects everyone: “The lack of action is being felt by colleagues everywhere and it’s getting embarrassing”.
And it’s true across the working world. Employees’ confidence in their company’s ability to achieve their long-term goals is declining, with Culture Amp’s 2026 global benchmark data showing a steady drop since 2021.
Why the inertia?
Leaders know full well the vision, mission, purpose, motivations and project ideas – there’s clear agreement.
But in some organisations, a difficult conversations culture isn’t in place to flush out bad ideas and think strategically or commercially. One exec team I worked with was so polite it was painful.
It could also be that there’s no intentional decision-making process. Leaders unskilled at rigor and reflection rely on gut instinct, resulting in kicking the can down the road and zero progress.
The lack of action is being felt by colleagues everywhere and it’s getting embarrassing
Why it matters to HR
Without shopfloor evidence of strategy in action, the implications for HR are all too familiar: employee engagement suffers and a harmful eye rolling culture of ‘it’s all talk, no action’ waits in the wings.
The bad news is we’ve become so used to the way we do things that it’s tricky to know how to adapt.
The good news is that small, easy to implement changes oil the wheels of progress.
1. Reframe the agenda: from updates to questions
Review your last five meetings. What was the ask of attendees? Did the language around agenda items invite passive ‘information only’ or elicit decision and action?
I worked with a board where meetings consisted of heads of department simply presenting updates, which meant directors missed valuable expertise to help them prioritise.
“Update on the supplier review” became: “Decision: do we proceed with Supplier X, despite the integration risk?”.
“Q3 performance update” became: “Where do we need to intervene before Q4 and in what order?”.
The next meeting ran 20 minutes shorter and produced two actionable decisions. Same people, same data, reframed and positioned to elicit useful expertise and exploration.
2. Info and inspo: join the dots with ‘so we can…’ phrases
In coaching conversations about impact, invite colleagues to inform and inspire during meetings.
Working with a new FD, I suggested she expand numbers information to reference values and vision.
She was able to remind her colleagues of their good intentions and inspire them to act, simply by using these connecting, or bridging, phrases:
So we can…
Which will help us to…
And that means that our people will…
Some might ask: “Isn’t the outcome obvious to the bosses?”, to which the answer is: “Yes, but why leave it to chance?”.
We’ve become so used to the way we do things that it’s tricky to know how to adapt
3. Stick your neck out: add your view
Most of us default to factual police report language when the stakes feel high. This is especially true when people are not routinely asked their opinion.
Sticking your neck out can feel dangerous but not doing so leaves the room without a steer. “Here are the numbers”. “Progress has been made”. Accurate enough, but unhelpfully flat.
As well as coaching others, HR can role model by including their much-needed view. Ask about the content you’re sharing: is it to be welcomed or warned against? Is it something to push on now, or wait and watch for? Offer your opinion and light the way.
If that feels risqué, add in ‘wow words’ to indicate your views: “Here are the impressive/alarming numbers”. “Progress has been phenomenal/disappointing”.
4. Take control of Q&As and summarise
An HRD at an investment bank asked me to help managers present to the exec committee with more confidence.
It became clear they most feared the Q&A section of presentations because leaders indulged in knowledge signalling, point scoring, forcing their own agendas and barking questions like dark overlords. No wonder managers were quaking in their boots, their impact reduced to dust.
Of course, HR (and other leaders!) should call out this damaging behaviour right away. But to get immediate control, meeting contributors can ringfence the time they allow for questions with this simple phrase:
“Before I finish, I have time for a couple of your questions.”
After a few minutes, close the questions down with a thank you, and summarise your points to get the room on track.
Repeat yourself beyond the point at which you are bored with the message and until you see implementation
5. The forgetting curve: repeat your message for as long as it takes
When you’re told something, do you immediately act on it? No, you do not.
And it’s largely because you’ll have completely forgotten what you were told. Simply put, you need to be reminded again and again before it sinks in and you do it.
In one of my keynote sessions, ‘Impact in the moment’, leaders and managers in the audience knowingly chuckle when I share a slide depicting The Forgetting Curve (Hermann Ebbinghaus, 1885).
It shows a person’s retention on the vertical, seven days on the horizontal and a swooping downward ski slope of a curve by the end of the week.
At work, we can’t risk people forgetting. Whether it’s those leaders back at their desks preoccupied with day-to-day issues, or junior colleagues whose tasks get the strategy into play.
The practical antidote is to communicate like a machine, regular and consistent. Repeat yourself beyond the point at which you are bored with the message and until you see implementation.
Intentional communication like this makes meetings feel lighter, decisions easier to reach – and action actually happen.
Check out your next practical solutions piece: Self-Assessment Framework: Are you an enterprise CHRO or function head?
