Parking lot
A place to temporarily hold topics that come up in a meeting but stray from the main thread, a facilitation technique that keeps discussion on track.
A parking lot is a “holding area” for temporarily setting aside topics that come up during a meeting but stray from the main thread. Taken literally, it is a place to park cars, and it is a facilitation technique for moving the main topic forward without letting the discussion get sidetracked. You set aside a space in a corner of the whiteboard or a collaboratively edited document and stock the topics to be dealt with later.
The purposes of a parking lot
- Keeping focus on the main topic
- Prevents the discussion from getting sidetracked and finishes the main topic in the limited time
- Respecting remarks
- Putting important points "on hold" rather than "ignoring" them keeps the speaker feeling psychologically safe
- Preparing the next agenda
- Pending items naturally accumulate as candidate topics for the next meeting
- Clarifying what was decided
- Stating "we will not decide this now" prevents confusion later
Remarks that belong in the parking lot
| Verdict | Example |
|---|---|
| Deal with it now | A point directly related to today's agenda |
| To the parking lot | Important but outside today's agenda |
| To the parking lot | Something that cannot be decided now because the decision-maker is absent |
| To the parking lot | Discussing it will not reach a conclusion because information is lacking |
| Rejected (state the reason) | Small talk unrelated to the main thread that does not need to be handled separately either |
How to run a parking lot
- Share the agenda at the start of the meeting + prepare a space for the parking lot
- When a remark strays from the main topic, the facilitator declares “Let’s put this in the parking lot”
- Record the remark where everyone can see it (whiteboard or shared document)
- Near the end of the meeting, review the parking lot and sort each item into “deal with next time,” “handle individually,” or “rejected”
- Write the sorting results clearly in the meeting minutes
Cautions in running a parking lot
Patterns where it stops working
- Items are put in, but the sorting at the end is forgotten
- The parking lot is seen as “ignoring,” and speakers become dissatisfied
- “Everything goes to the parking lot,” and the main topic gets thin
- Items get buried without being carried over to the next meeting
Using it in brainstorming
In brainstorming, ideas that will not be taken up in the convergence phase are moved to the parking lot. This lets you put ideas “on hold” rather than “throw them away,” which lightens the psychological burden on the people who suggested them. Topics outside the agenda can be handled the same way.