Signs of an ineffective meeting
- Nobody knows why they're there.
- You recap the last meeting.
- The topic drifts, and the meeting overruns.
- You leave without knowing who does what.
- At the next meeting, you discuss the same thing again.
Five rules for a useful meeting
- One purpose: decide, inform or think. A meeting that tries to do everything does nothing.
- An agenda, sent beforehand, with what's expected on each topic.
- The right people, and only them. Others will read the decisions.
- One decision per topic, or an action to reach one: never leave a topic without knowing what happens next.
- A written record: decisions and actions, each with an owner and a date, visible to those concerned.
The rituals a small business needs
| Ritual | Length | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly check-in | 15–30 min | What's moving, what's stuck, this week's priorities |
| Monthly review | 1 hour | Goals, pending decisions |
| Quarterly review | Half a day | Direction, next quarter's priorities |
These rituals benefit from being written like processes: who attends, what's covered, what comes out. See documenting processes.
What happens after matters more than the meeting
A meeting is only as useful as what it triggers. Agreed actions must be followed up, chased and reviewed at the next meeting. Without that follow-up, even a well-run meeting fades.
A simple test. At the end, ask everyone to say in one sentence what they'll do before next time. If someone can't, the meeting isn't over.
See also poor communication and the 10 most common team problems.