Meetings get shortened without warning more often than decks get built for it. The instinct under time pressure is to speed up and cover everything anyway, which usually means the ask — the actual point of the meeting — gets rushed or dropped entirely because it was scheduled for the end.
The better response is to have already decided, before you’re in the room, what gets cut first if the time gets cut. It should never be the ask, and it’s almost never the opening.
Do this now. Before your next presentation, write a one-line “if this gets cut to half the time” plan: which sections go first, and confirm that the ask from the last lesson survives every version of that cut. Most decks can lose their middle detail and context long before they can afford to lose the ask.
Deciding this in advance means a shortened meeting becomes an adjustment rather than a crisis, because the decision about what matters most was made calmly beforehand rather than under pressure in the room.
