© 2026 KWBU
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Business Review - Five Powerful Words

Most meetings are a waste of time. Scott Mautz discusses how five powerful words can change a meeting from unproductive to a success for all involved.

STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE WASTED

BECAUSE OF MEETINGS WHICH END WITH A LACK OF DIRECTION OR CLARITY. SCOTT MAUTZ, FOUNDER AND CEO OF PROFOUND PERFORMANCE, SHARES HOW FIVE POWERFUL WORDS CAN YIELD MORE PRODUCTIVE OUTCOMES FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED.

“We all know meetings are unproductive by nature, but they don't have to be by simply taking the time to ask a five-word question …..who will do what by when at the end of every meeting and establishing that as a habit.

“First of all, the who part it creates good old-fashioned accountability.. who is going to do what by when, and when you assign the, you know, who that means you have to assign a person to a task. That means people are going to pay more attention during the meeting because they know by habit, you always ask this question at the end of every meeting, they could be the who! The what part. Who will do what by when. That creates precision in the meeting, and it forces you to stop and say, what is the action that needs to be done next? And avoids meeting drift. How many times have you been in a meeting and after that meeting everyone had a different take away. When you get into a pattern and a habit as the team leader of always asking this question at the end, who will do what by, when people come to anticipate that they expect that, and it changes meaning behavior because they know someone's going to be held accountable to do something very specific by a specific point in time that changes your meeting behavior when you know that question is coming.”

THE BUSINESS REVIEW IS A PRODUCTION OF LIVINGSTON AND MCKAY AND THE HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY.

C.J. Jackson drives on sunshine and thrives on family, NPR and PBS. She is the assistant dean of communications and marketing at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business and host of public radio’s “Business Review.” Previously, she was director of marketing communications for a large, multinational corporation. C.J. has two daughters—Bri in San Antonio and Devon in Chicago—and four grandchildren. She lives with a little yellow cat named for an ancient Hawaiian tripping weapon.