We have a transactional, low energy team where everyone shares a flat, one word personal best during the segue, which completely drains the room before we even look at our numbers. How do we fix a dead segue?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The five minute segue is the transition from your daily operational whirlwind into the meeting. When your leadership team treats it as a chore, delivering flat, one word responses like fine or busy, you kill the energy before the meeting even starts. This is not just a cultural issue, it is a structural leak. A flat segue means your team is not mentally present, which leads to passive listening during the scorecard review and weak participation during IDS®.

To fix this, the facilitator must set a higher standard for what qualifies as a best. A personal or professional best must be a specific win, not a general state of being. Implement a simple rule: if a leader shares a low effort response, the facilitator must immediately prompt them for a specific detail. Ask them what went right with a client, what progress they made on a project, or a quick win at home. Keep it rapid fire.

Another tactic is to rotate who starts the segue. Do not let the same low energy leader lead the transition. If your Visionary or Integrator starts with high energy and a genuine, specific win, it sets the tone for the rest of the room. Keep the entire transition under five minutes. If a leader starts to tell a long story, cut them off and move to the next person. The goal is a quick, high energy pattern interrupt that shifts focus from working in the business to working on the business.