Not Another Meeting

Meetings are useful… when they are necessary.

Not every decision needs to be made by committee. And not every discussion requires the entire workgroup to witness it.

If you have an “all-hands” meeting on a weekly basis (which is a good thing), make sure that the agenda only includes things that everyone needs to discuss… and then stick to the agenda. It’s a huge time-waste to have everyone stop productive work to sit around for an hour (or longer!) each week and listen to other people discuss projects on which they are not involved instead of actually getting work done on projects that have upcoming deadlines.

Have smaller work sessions (some of which can be set in the all-hands meeting, if there is a need) to discuss specific projects that only require a small sub-set of the team. Have individual one-on-one sessions with each direct report for training, coaching, feedback, scheduling, or updates on their specific work. Let your team members have meetings without you, if you are not directly contributing to that part of the project—they can always update you later. Always have a purpose for the meeting—it should be to “make a decision on X” or “discuss the options for Y” or “work out the process for Z.” Make an agenda and share it in advance. Don’t just sit around and talk for an hour and not resolve anything.

Effective meetings are not just a matter of luck—they grow out of intentional planning.

(image source: https://www.leadershipgeeks.com/50-funny-leadership-quotes/)