Your meeting's wrapping up. You're already thinking of what you have to do next. Others are already mentally checking out. And then someone pipes up:
Oh, just one quick thing...
And you go berserk in your mind crafting ingenious ways to kill whoever had the nerve to speak up. In the most slow and painful way possible.
I've been in more meetings than I can count where this is the norm rather than the exception. Why does this happen though?
People panic when they realise they've forgotten something important. Either that or they're conflict-averse and they wait until the "safe" moment to bring up tricky topics. Sometimes it's just poor time management. They genuinely think their thing is quick and assume they can just squeeze it in.
But this one quick thing will derail the meeting. Now the meeting is bound to run over. You can't let that happen. You're disrespecting everyone's time if you do.
More importantly, that last-minute topic rarely gets the attention it deserves. People are tired, distracted and eager to leave. Important decisions get rushed or made by whoever is left in the meeting.
There's an easy fix for this though.
Start meetings by asking if anyone has additional items for the agenda. If you're in a team where the "just one more thing" is part of the culture, build in a proper "any other business" slot with a firm time limit.
No matter how much you plan for it though, it can still happen. In that case, politely defer. Say something like:
That sounds important. Let's schedule a separate chat about it.
The worst thing you can do is let one person hijack everyone else's time just because they couldn't plan ahead.
The meeting ends when it's supposed to end. That's it.