What's the #1 thing you'd get rid of in business if you could?
A lot of people would say meetings.
Meetings. Meetings. Meetings.
But I don't think that covers it adequately.
It's that we're in too many poorly run, unfocused, too-many-people-to-be-effective meetings.
...Too many pats on the back.
...Too many people in love with their own voice.
...Too much tiptoeing and not enough decisions.
If it makes you want to throw your hands up in the air and get back to your inbox, you're not alone.
According to a Harvard Business Review survey, 71% of senior managers said meetings are unproductive and inefficient, and 65% said meetings keep them from completing their own work.
If you're experiencing too many meetings or meetings that don't go anywhere (even one of these classifies as "too many"), you'll want to take note.
If your organization is experiencing too many meetings or meetings that don’t drive outcomes - and let's be clear, even one is too many at scale - you’ll want to take note
Judge Meetings By Their Outcomes, Not Their Occurrence
Before we drop all meetings ever, let's start with this basic premise:
Judge meetings not by what happens in the meeting but by what happens between meetings.
In growing firms, meeting creep is rarely the core problem. It’s a signal that decision rights, ownership, or execution cadence aren’t fully defined.
At scale, the true cost of meetings is measured in lost momentum and diluted accountability, metrics that matter to seasoned operators.
This implies a couple of things.
- That the meeting needs to effect action.
- That this isn't "a meeting" but a milestone. There will be more milestones, if not more meetings.
- And that the meeting is an agent for change and accountability to that change.
This will be easier to achieve when you include this next step...
The Non-Negotiables: Purpose and Agenda
Poorly organized meetings cost U.S. businesses $399 billion in 2019, with lack of clear objectives and agendas cited as top reasons.
In disciplined organizations, meetings exist to advance a business objective, not to exchange updates.
Which means having a purpose and an agenda.
The agenda drives toward the meeting purpose. No more and no less.
The meeting purpose drives toward a business purpose (a goal, initiative, or KPI).
Both should be made available to participants before the meeting along with any collateral or requirements for preparation.
This may feel like another operational discipline to add to your toolkit, but if a meeting isn’t worth preparing for, it’s not worth the organizational cost.
Set Standards For Participation
Defining valuable, active participation is key.
In growth-stage organizations, participation standards aren’t just cultural. They’re a lever for operational leverage.
Bad meetings train for bad participation habits. Which means all those past meetings and previous managers set up some unfortunate patterns for your team.
Inherited patterns aren’t your fault. But as a leader, it’s your responsibility to reset expectations.
You and your leadership team have to define what a successful looks like and retrain people for good participation.
Here's my take on an effective meeting: neither happy lovefests nor out-and-out brawls. It's a happy medium of clear communication, constructive challenge and fine-tuned feedback. No monologues required.
Or as we'd say in a networking meeting: No hogs. No logs.
I expect my meeting participants to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and point out potential problems.
It's not nearly as productive to have issues pointed out after the feedback cycle and changes are already in the works.
It's not helpful finding out later that my communication wasn't as clear as I intended it to be.
I want to know what matters when it matters... when there are more options and opportunity to do something about it.
Define your own set of standards, start with demonstrating them yourself, and then educate the rest of your team what that means.
Get Selective About Meeting Attendees & Their Behavior
There are times when someone just showing up is adequate.
There will be times when you're inviting people for strategic or psychological reasons, like alignment, visibility, or trust-building, even when their input isn't required from a practical perspective.
But there's a tendency to put too many people into too many meetings on too many topics.
We want on-point discussions that help us make decisions or create momentum toward our goals.
Which means a little selectivity is okay.
Bring your team members and colleagues into a meeting when you want their active participation. Then give them the guidelines of what they need to do beforehand to be ready for that.
But if someone is repeatedly showing up unprepared and unwilling to participate when you need them to...
Or if someone is sidetracking the meeting or dominating the conversation...
They either warrant targeted coaching or a candid conversation about fit.
Turn Meetings Into A Competitive Advantage
If you want your meetings to drive real progress, it starts with clarity, preparation, and a willingness to set, and enforce, standards.
Meetings aren’t going away, but the way you run them can absolutely change. When you treat every meeting as an opportunity for action, accountability, and meaningful participation, you’ll not only reclaim lost time, you’ll build a culture where people show up ready to contribute and move the business forward.
Start small, stay consistent, and watch the ripple effect across your team.
