A Simple Practice That Saves Great Ideas – Why Not “Park” It

Published On:

June 11, 2026

A Simple Practice That Saves Great Ideas - Why Not "Park" It

Using a parking lot in meetings and discussions is a facilitation practice where off‑topic but relevant ideas, questions, risks, or concerns are intentionally captured in a visible, shared space so they are acknowledged and preserved without interrupting the current agenda.

The purpose is to maintain focus and momentum while ensuring that valuable contributions are not ignored or forgotten. Items placed in the parking lot are revisited later, either at the end of the meeting, in a follow‑up session, or through assigned actions.

In essence, a parking lot:

Honors contributions without derailing discussion
Protects meeting objectives and time
Creates psychological safety by signaling that ideas matter
Provides a structured way to manage tangents, insights, and emerging issues

Reducing mental overload, a powerful benefit

One often-overlooked advantage of a parking lot is its impact on cognitive load. When participants fear losing a thought, they mentally “hold onto it,” pulling their attention away from the current discussion. The act of visibly parking an idea frees people to fully re-engage in the conversation at hand.

In this way, the parking lot doesn’t just protect ideas, it protects focus.

By reassuring participants that their contributions are captured, you reduce interruptions, side conversations, and mental multitasking, creating space for deeper thinking and better decisions.

A tool for inclusive participation

Parking lots also play a subtle but powerful role in equitable meeting dynamics. Not everyone processes information or formulates ideas at the same pace. Some people think out loud; others reflect and then contribute.

When leaders repeatedly park ideas with respect and visibility, it signals that quieter voices are just as valued as dominant ones. Over time, this practice lowers the barrier to participation and supports psychological safety, especially for newer team members or cross-functional contributors who may already feel hesitant to speak up.

Strengthening facilitation skills

An effective parking lot is a marker of skilled facilitation.

It requires nuance: acknowledging the idea, avoiding judgment, and steering the group back to the agenda without abrupt dismissal. Phrases like:

“That’s an important point, let’s capture it and come back to it.”
“Let’s Park that, so we can give it the attention it deserves.”

These small interventions build trust while preserving momentum. Over time, teams often begin to self‑regulate, with participants suggesting parking items themselves, a strong signal of meeting maturity.

Parking lots as a decision hygiene practice

Parking lots don’t just manage ideas; they help manage decision quality.

Meetings often drift when premature solutions appear before a problem is fully understood. Parking these solutions allows the group to stay in problem-definition mode while ensuring solution ideas aren’t lost. This separation improves clarity, reduces rework, and prevents decisions made under incomplete understanding.

In this sense, the parking lot acts as a guardrail against rushed conclusions.

Making follow-through visible from capture to continuity

One of the fastest ways to undermine the parking lot is silence after the meeting. To avoid this, consider building a simple follow-through rhythm:

Tag items with an owner and next step
Time-box when they’ll be revisited
Share a brief update in the next meeting or via an asynchronous channel

Even a short message like, “Three parking lot items were reviewed; one added to the backlog, one scheduled for discussion, one archived” reinforces trust and shows the system works.

Metrics that matter without overkill

While parking lots are qualitative by nature, some teams find value in light measurement:

Number of parking lot items actioned
Ideas that later influenced decisions
Patterns or themes emerging over time

These insights can inform retrospectives, highlight systemic issues, or surface recurring strategic questions that deserve focused attention.

Leadership matters more than the tool

Perhaps the most important insight is this: a parking lot only works if leaders respect it.

If leaders dismiss parked ideas, never revisit them, or selectively acknowledge certain contributions, the practice becomes performative. When leaders model curiosity, follow-through, and transparency, especially when ideas can’t be acted upon, the parking lot becomes a symbol of integrity, not just process.

At its best, the parking lot balances structure and openness. It allows meetings to move forward without silencing creativity, and it creates a shared memory for insights that don’t fit neatly into today’s agenda but may shape tomorrow’s decisions.

Used consistently, it becomes more than a meeting tactic. It becomes a shared agreement: we value focus, and we value ideas, and we don’t sacrifice one for the other.

PML would like to extend a huge thank you to Sylvie Edwards for sharing her knowledge and wisdom with the PML community!
Learn more about her below and reach out to connect!

About the Author

For those who don’t know Sylvie, she has been involved in Project Management in several industries for the past 25+ years. Sylvie previously worked for a top 5 Consulting Firm, where she oversaw projects in the IT, Banking, Health, Government and Securities sectors as well as a Manager in the Risk Management practice.

Sylvie went on to establish her own consulting practice assisting organizations in establishing processes, strategies and developing methodologies. She was instrumental in the development of methodologies for the creation of PMOs as well as for the evaluation, assessment and review of projects in peril.

Sylvie is currently a professor and the coordinator for the Project Management Certificate Program at Durham College. She previously taught at the University of Toronto continuing studies department, assisting hundreds of potential PMP® achieve their certification. She is a frequent lecturer, presenter and blogger (PMWorld360°, ProjectBites, LinkedIn) on all things related to project management. She holds several certifications and has the honour of having been named Fellow of the Project Management Association of Canada (FPMAC).

Sylvie’s involvement with PMI® is long standing including over 12 years on the Board of Directors of the local Chapter where she led initiatives in education, mentoring and held the role of President for two terms. She recently accepted a role back on the BOD for PMI-DHC while still volunteering by becoming their resident “bookworm”, helping people find great reads to supplement their learning about Project Management and everything connecting to it.

If you see her at an event, say hello and get to know her!

Connect directly with Sylvie on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvie4sresolutions/

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