BAMFAM: book a meeting from a meeting

In one paragraph

Before anyone stands up, agree the date of the next conversation and put it in both diaries. That single habit removes most of the follow-up problem.

The cycle is simple: you book a meeting, the meeting happens, and from that meeting you book the next. Miss the last step and you re-enter the world of chasing — emails, voicemails, the gradual cooling of something that was warm.

Why it works

In the room, agreement is easy and the relationship is live. A week later you are competing with everything else in their inbox and the momentum has gone. The cost of asking is a few seconds; the cost of not asking is a chase sequence that may never land.

This applies internally as much as to clients. A project review with no next date is a project that quietly stops.

How to actually use it

• Make it the last item on every agenda, so it cannot be forgotten in the goodbyes.
• Book it even when there is no obvious reason. A date you later move is far easier than a date you have to create from cold.

Where it breaks down

• Pushed on someone who is not ready, it reads as pressure. If the honest answer is that there is no next step, accept that rather than manufacturing one.

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