Our five-minute good news segue consistently stretches to fifteen minutes because our leadership team members feel the need to elaborate on their wins and give detailed background stories. How do we keep the transition fast and energetic without making team members feel silenced or dismissed?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The good news segue is designed to transition your minds from working in the business to working on the business. It builds team health and starts the meeting on a high note, but it must be a quick sprint, not a marathon. When leaders give long background stories, they drain the energy of the room and eat into your scorecard review.

To fix this, the facilitator must set clear boundaries before the segue begins. Instruct the team that they have exactly thirty seconds each to share one personal best and one professional best. Encourage them to share the headline, not the entire article.

If a leader starts to tell a long story, the facilitator needs to gently but firmly interrupt and say, 'Great win, keep it to the headline.' This is not about being rude or dismissive, it is about respecting the collective time of the leadership team.

You can also change the order of the segue to keep it moving. Instead of letting people speak at random, go around the table or screen in a predictable sequence. This keeps everyone focused on their contribution and prevents awkward silences that lead to oversharing. By enforcing a hard five-minute limit on the entire segue, you build a culture of brevity that carries over into the rest of the Level 10 Meeting™ agenda.