The Power of Meetings

Meetings sure get a bad reputation these days. Open LinkedIn on any given day and you’ll find articles and posts complaining that meetings are a waste of time, demoralizing to employees, and a drain on organizational resources.

Some meetings do deserve that criticism, but I don’t think meetings are the problem. I think poorly designed meetings are.

When well planned and facilitated, meetings can be one of the most effective tools organizations have for making decisions, solving problems, coordinating efforts, and building alignment. The issue is not whether or not we should have meetings. It’s whether they create value.

Meetings are expensive. A one-hour meeting with ten participants is not a one-hour activity — it’s ten hours of organizational capacity. If we are going to spend that much collective time, we should make sure it is well spent.

Reasons to Have Meetings

When well thought out and organized, meetings can be a very efficient way to make decisions and accelerate work. 

I believe there are three legitimate reasons to call a meeting. I call them the 3 C’s of Meetings: Communicate. Coordinate. Collaborate.

Communication Meetings

Communication meetings exist to ensure people understand a message and have an opportunity to ask questions. However, they should be reserved for situations where the information is sensitive, complex, or likely to generate discussion. If the objective is simply to transfer information, ask yourself:

Could this be communicated effectively through email, Teams, Slack, or another one-way communication channel?

If the answer is yes, a meeting may not be necessary.

A useful rule of thumb is to communicate first, then schedule a Q&A session if needed. This respects people’s time while still providing an opportunity for discussion and clarification.

Coordination Meetings

Coordination meetings bring together people from different functions, products, regions, or departments so they can align efforts, avoid duplication, and identify opportunities to work together. These meetings can be especially valuable when one team’s success can be replicated elsewhere.

The key question is:

Will the information discussed be useful to the people attending?

Useful, not merely interesting. If attendees can learn something that improves their own performance or helps them coordinate with others, the meeting likely has value.

Collaboration Meetings

Collaboration meetings are often the most engaging meetings an organization can have. These are brainstorming sessions, project kickoffs, problem-solving workshops, and strategy discussions where a group comes together to tackle a challenge collectively. The purpose is not to report progress, it is to think together.

The participants should be expected to contribute ideas, challenge assumptions, and help shape solutions. If someone has no meaningful way to contribute, don’t waste their time by inviting them.

So, before scheduling a meeting, ask yourself: Am I trying to Communicate, Coordinate, or Collaborate? If the answer is none of the above, you probably don’t need a meeting.

Types of Meetings

Meetings are not one-size-fits-all, and they should not be used as catch-all forums for every issue facing the organization. Understanding the purpose of the meeting — and maintaining the discipline to stay focused on that purpose — is critical.

One of the fastest ways to ruin a productive meeting is to think: “Since I already have everyone here, let’s talk about this other issue too.” That approach rarely saves time. More often, it dilutes the discussion and prevents the group from accomplishing what they originally came together to do.

Strategic Meetings

Strategic meetings focus on the future. These are the meetings where teams discuss trends, competitive pressures, opportunities, risks, and long-term direction. Participants step away from day-to-day execution and ask broader questions:

• Are we heading in the right direction?
• What opportunities are emerging?
• What threats should we prepare for?
• Do we need to adjust our priorities?

Strategic meetings often involve presentations because participants need context before meaningful discussions can take place. However, the purpose of the meeting is not the presentation itself. The presentation should serve as a catalyst for discussion and decision-making.

In an initial strategy development meeting, leaders may be presented with the organization’s objectives and asked to identify the actions required to achieve them. Subsequent meetings may be used to evaluate progress, reassess assumptions, identify new opportunities, or determine whether a change in direction is necessary.

Because strategy does not typically change every week, these meetings are usually held monthly, quarterly, or at another regular cadence. That said, when a significant strategic issue emerges, it is often better to call an ad-hoc meeting rather than wait for the next scheduled session. Strategic risks and opportunities have a tendency to grow if not attended in a timely manner.

Tactical Meetings

Tactical meetings are where decisions get made.

These meetings focus on determining what actions are required to execute the organization’s strategy successfully. Unlike strategic meetings, they are generally not intended to redefine direction. Their purpose is to decide how to move forward.

Tactical meetings should typically occur weekly or bi-weekly, depending on the pace of execution. The decisions discussed should be those requiring cross-functional alignment or input from multiple stakeholders. Individual contributors and managers should not have to wait for a meeting to make routine decisions. This may sound obvious, but some leaders seek consensus on every issue because they fear making difficult decisions or being held accountable if things go wrong.

A tactical meeting should accelerate execution, not delay it.

One-on-one Meetings

One-on-one meetings are where the focus is on the employee, not on the “busyness”. 

They should be regularly scheduled time to discuss whatever is on the employee’s mind — be it help needed, development goals, progress updates and so on. If it not scheduled, conversations tend to veer towards tactical topics and rarely about development or other employee needs. 

I’ve had employees with whom I spoke several times a week, but we were always talking about business. Open communication is not the same thing as dedicated development time. Even when communication channels are open, discipline is needed to dedicate time for their development, to coordinate approaches, and to make sure we are in sync. This time is also important to build trust between the supervisor and employee. 

These meetings can we short, and may be cancelled if there is not much to talk about, but it’s important that the employee knows that they have a slot dedicated to them. 

Townhall Meetings

Townhall meetings can be powerful tools for employee engagement when used effectively.

At their best, they communicate transparency, provide context for important decisions, and demonstrate that leaders are willing to invest time keeping employees informed.

Employees don’t attend townhalls because they enjoy PowerPoint presentations. They attend because they want context, transparency, and access to leadership. A good townhall helps employees understand what is happening in the organization, why decisions are being made, and how those decisions affect them. The key is to keep these meetings focused, relevant, and engaging.

Avoid trying to cover too many subjects in a single session. Instead, focus on a handful of meaningful messages and explain why they matter to employees.

Whenever possible:

• Include time for questions.
• Rotate speakers to expose employees to different leaders.
• Share success stories and lessons learned.
• Focus on the employee perspective: “What does this mean for me?”

A thirty-minute engaging townhall will often have more impact than a ninety-minute information dump. And like any other meeting, townhalls should be designed intentionally and with the audience in mind.

The Black Sheep: Status Update Meetings

I am particularly opposed to status update meetings. These often occur when a core group needs updates from several individuals, but the people providing the updates receive little or no value from hearing one another.

For example, Operations and Marketing may need updates from Sales leaders managing different market segments. A common solution is to schedule a ninety-minute meeting where each sales leader provides a fifteen-minute update and then sits through the remaining hour listening to information that has no relevance to their responsibilities.

I find these meetings particularly selfish.

One group benefits while failing to consider the time being consumed from everyone else. There are often far better alternatives.

In one global role I held, several support functions needed monthly updates from regional sales leaders. Rather than asking everyone to sit through a lengthy global call across 14 timezones, we scheduled thirty-minute slots for each region. The core team attended the entire session, but each sales leader joined only for their designated time and then returned to work. The objective was achieved without unnecessarily consuming hours of productive time.

When status meetings are truly necessary — for example, in Agile teams or critical projects — there are several ways to make them more efficient:

• Keep updates brief using a lightning-round format with a pre-determined, short amount of time per speaker.
• Standardize updates by asking everyone to answer the same questions.
• Use project management software whenever possible to track progress asynchronously.
• Reserve meeting time for problem solving and decision making rather than reporting.

Best Practices for Good Meetings

Conducting a productive meeting requires preparation. Too many leaders treat meetings as routine calendar events rather than as facilitated working sessions. The result is predictable: disengaged participants, poor decisions, and wasted time.

Invite the Right People

Every participant should either contribute to the discussion or benefit directly from attending. People are often invited “just in case” or for informational purposes. While well-intentioned, this can hurt both the meeting and employee morale. If someone cannot contribute and gains little value from attending, they probably shouldn’t be there.

Encourage Participation

Meetings should be interactive. If the gathering consists of one person talking while everyone else listens, it may have been better handled through another communication channel.

Encourage balanced participation. Prevent a few voices from dominating the conversation, while creating opportunities for quieter participants to contribute.

Establish Expectations Early

Set expectations regarding laptops, phones, and side conversations before the meeting begins. If expectations are unclear, leaders often find themselves correcting behavior in the moment, creating unnecessary discomfort. Sometimes it is not possible or useful to ban technology. The goal is to ensure participants remain engaged with the discussion.

Keep the Focus

Not every good idea deserves immediate discussion. When conversations drift away from the agenda, use a “parking lot” to capture issues that should be revisited later. Some items may warrant follow-up discussions. Others may deserve their own dedicated meeting. The important thing is to avoid losing focus on the objective at hand.

Be the Timekeeper — But Don’t Cut Conversations Short

The goal is not to end discussions quickly — it is to end unproductive discussions quickly. Some conversations become repetitive and circular. Others uncover important issues that require deeper analysis than originally anticipated.

As the facilitator, it is your responsibility to recognize the difference. If a discussion is no longer generating value, bring it to a close. If the conversation remains productive but requires more time, schedule a follow-up session rather than forcing a rushed conclusion.

You Are the Facilitator — Be Prepared

Don’t rely on a standing agenda. You are responsible for guiding the discussion, maintaining engagement, managing participation, and helping the group reach the desired outcome.

Preparation matters. A well-run meeting doesn’t happen by accident.

Make It Count

Meetings are expensive. A one-hour meeting with ten participants is not a one-hour activity. It is ten hours of organizational capacity. Because meetings are expensive, they deserve preparation.

The best meetings create understanding, alignment, decisions, and solutions that would not have emerged if everyone had worked alone. The worst meetings simply transfer information that could have been communicated another way.

Meetings are not inherently productive or unproductive. They become one or the other based on the intention, preparation, and discipline of the people running them.

Further reading

For readers interested in exploring some of the research and ideas behind the topics discussed above, the following resources provide helpful context and evidence:

• Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable…About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business, by Patrick M. Lencioni
• The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals, by Chris McChesney , Sean Covey , et al.
• The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance, by Steven G. Rogelberg