Too many meetings — meetings without a purpose, redundant meetings, or meetings called instead of a simple email or quick conversation. Even when they’re necessary, too many people are there, many show up late and tap away on computers or are glued to phone screens. Loud voices dominate, discussions go long and veer off-topic, and mind-numbing PowerPoint decks zap energy. Nothing useful gets done. And bad meetings can take up even more time at the “meeting after the meeting,” where people let off steam with each other about how bad the meeting was. I often hear “I have to come in early, stay late, or work the weekends to get my work done because I’m in meetings all day.”

Aaron Dignan, author of Brave New Work, a 2019 “think different” kind of management book, quoted a Salesforce executive who tweeted, “You likely have to get management approval for a $500 expense...but you can call a 1 hour meeting with 20 people and nobody notices.” One recent study estimated the cost of bad meetings at $399 billion in 2019 in the U.S.

Meeting weary organizations try lots of cures — no meeting days or even weeks, limiting meetings to 30 minutes, or adopting fixes like Jeff Bezos’ favorites: the two pizza rule (“no larger than can be fed by two pizzas’), memos not PowerPoint, and starting meetings with silence. These practices work because there’s intention, context and training — they’re part of broader organizational norms that scaffold their utility. Absent this, they rarely work or stick when copied.

New tools have been created to help as well. Dignan reports that “teams that have adopted messaging apps such as Slack have cut meetings by 24%.” Yet, The Productivity Pit: How Slack is Ruining Work suggests these platforms, while useful, have given us a whole new opportunity for unproductive communication.

Meetings are an important tool in the organizational tool chest for solving problems and getting work done. Dignan asserts, “Like it or not, great meetings offer higher bandwidth — more information per second — than any other form of communication. When we’re together, we not only hear one another but we also see and sense body language, emotion, and energy. . . . A million years of evolution didn’t evaporate because someone invented the videoconference.” (Or I’d add, any technology.)

A meeting has to be the right tool, properly used, and maintained. We default to meetings, and make matters worse by winging our way through them.

We already know what to do

Meeting dysfunction is a true puzzler for me. The experts agree on the do’s and don’ts for good meetings, and they’re easy to implement with intention and preparation — essentially, mindfulness.

I begin meeting workshops by asking people to describe great meetings they’ve experienced. The responses are always the same: real work gets done. They accelerate solving or shining light on problems, streamline work, and bring out the best ideas. They have a clear purpose and outcomes, good leadership and organization, start and end on time, stay on topic, people pay attention and engage in honest and open debate and idea sharing, and they end with clear next steps. And, a great meeting is fun!

How do we do what we already know?

Think right to left. Before automatically scheduling a meeting, begin with the end in mind: what problem are we solving or shining light on? And, if the meeting’s successful, what will have happened? And, the most important question is: DO WE NEED A MEETING FOR THIS? This applies to regular update meetings and 1:1s.

Good meeting hygiene.

Before the meeting

Who needs to be there? Invite the minimum number of people needed to get to the desired outcomes. Inform others of the outcomes after the meeting. Don’t sympathy invite.

Agenda What steps/discussions will get us to the outcomes, and who needs to do what for each agenda item?

Materials Be a minimalist — only what’s needed. Avoid Powerpoint overload. Embed in meeting notices and provide links.

Place If possible, get a comfortable, well-lit, right-sized space.

Roles Designate a facilitator, timekeeper, and notetaker.

At the meeting

Run on time

Start with a check-in Ask “What’s on your mind? What do you want to get out of the meeting?” Review the agenda, outcomes, and ground rules.

Decide how you’re going to decide Is the leader making decisions? Are we going for consensus?

Stay on track Create a parking lot for topics that come up for future discussions.

Capture notes Use a “headline and caption” mindset. Dense notes don’t get used.

Clear actions, decisions, next steps At the end of the meeting, review notes and confirm actions and decisions.

One-voice message Create a clear brief summary and share with those who need to be informed.

Feedback Ask what worked well? What would have made this better? Or do quick electronic feedback surveys.

Good meeting substance. We’ve all been in meetings that ran well and nothing meaningful happened. Healthy conflict and discourse are essential to good meetings. Priya Parker points out that meetings are more likely to be derailed by “unhealthy peace, not unhealthy conflict,” when people are either afraid or unwilling to speak up. Google’s Project Aristotle revealed that the most important ingredient in high performing teams is psychological safety. This showed up in two behaviors: (1) the members spoke in roughly equal amounts, and (2) they were emotionally clued into each other. Kim Scott calls this Radical Candor. Create meeting ground rules, and pay attention to the people in the room — diplomatically quiet the loud voices, and invite the soft voices in. “Thanks for all the good ideas, let’s see if we can hear from others,” and “We haven’t heard from you yet, what are your thoughts?”

Aaron Dignan also suggests taking a look at liberatingstructures.com for ideas “to move beyond conventional meetings to something more inclusive and generative.”

Meeting audits. Regularly review meetings and feedback, especially standing and check-in meetings. What can we eliminate? The gift of time is one of our most appreciated treasures. Let’s do a little gift-giving.

Thoughts are welcome