We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This...

I received several thoughtful responses to last week's post, including one from a former coach who taught me a great deal about leadership. He wrote:

"You make a good point about the cost of meetings in both time and in lost opportunity. I agree that we should cut down the number of meetings. Often as a leader of an organization I found my day full of meetings I had not created so someone else was controlling my time.

At the same time, meetings are how work often gets done. Farmers have tractors, business folks have meetings. Meetings are often a waste of time because there is not a clear purpose and people have never been trained in how to have effective meetings."

Spot on.

It's easy to read my previous post and conclude that meetings are the problem. They aren't. Unnecessary, redundant, objectiveless, un-agendaed, poorly conceived meetings are the problem.

A farmer doesn't spend the day driving a tractor because that's what farmers do.

Meetings are simply a leadership tool. Like every tool, they should be used intentionally. A farmer doesn't spend the day driving a tractor because that's what farmers do. The tractor comes out when it's the best tool for the job. When that work is finished, it goes back in the barn. Then another tool is found.

The same should be true of meetings.

Too often, organizations schedule a meeting because that’s the way it has always been done. Meetings make us feel busy and important. Calendars fill up. People gather. And everyone leaves with the same work they had before they entered the room—only now they have one less hour to accomplish it.

That doesn't mean we should stop meeting. It means we should become much more disciplined about how and why we meet.

Before sending the invitation, leaders should ask a few simple questions. Is there actually a decision that requires people to be together? Is collaboration necessary, or could this be handled with a well-written email or shared document? Who truly needs to attend, and who is being invited simply because "they always come"? Every meeting should answer one simple question before it is scheduled: What can't be accomplished without getting these people together?

When a meeting is necessary, clarity becomes the leader's greatest ally. Instead of vague agenda items like "Budget" or "Marketing," frame them as questions that must be answered. Should we invest another $100,000 in this campaign? Which three priorities should we pursue next quarter? A meeting that begins with clear questions is far more likely to end with clear decisions. Better yet, send the relevant information before the meeting. Time together should be spent discussing and deciding—not bringing everyone up to speed.

Time together should be spent discussing and deciding—not bringing everyone up to speed.

Perhaps the most overlooked leadership skill is learning to end a meeting before the scheduled time. If the purpose has been accomplished in twenty-five minutes, give everyone thirty-five minutes back. They won't remember that you finished early; they'll remember that you respected their time.

Great leaders don't measure success by how full their calendars are. They measure it by the progress their organizations make. Meetings are one way to create that progress—but only when they have a clear purpose, involve the right people, and end with clear decisions.

Great leaders don't measure success by how full their calendars are. They measure it by the progress their organizations make.

The goal isn't to eliminate meetings. The goal isn't even to have fewer meetings. The goal is to stop mistaking meetings for work.

The goal isn't to stop meeting. It's to stop “meeting like this.”