What is Parking Technique?
We recommend the parking technique because it is a powerful strategy and group tool to keep a team meeting on track. When issues or questions arise in discussion which will take too much time or that don’t seem immediately relevant to the current purpose, they can be written on a sheet to be looked at later on.
If a group conversation is in danger of veering off-topic, you could put that particular topic in the hypothetical parking.
That way, you are ‘parking’ it for later so your team can focus on the more pressing issues. The parking lot technique is a highly useful trick that can help you boost efficiency in your meetings.
How to use the parking technique?
There are a few steps you can follow when you notice that a conversation is going in the wrong direction:
- Act quickly to pull the discussion back to the appropriate topic. You should politely address the person or people talking and clarify that their chosen topic is more suited to the parking lot.
- Take note of the topic. You could add a sticky note to your whiteboard or use a separate flip chart dedicated to parking-lot topics.
- When you have discussed your more urgent issues, you can return to the parking lot at the end of the meeting. Alternatively, you can add it to the agenda for the next meeting.
Now you know how to use the parking, your meetings should remain on course and run as smoothly as possible.
