Running a Good Meeting

Most meetings fail before anyone speaks, because nobody decided what the meeting was for.

A meeting has exactly three legitimate purposes. You are there to make a decision, to solve a problem together, or to share something that genuinely needs discussion. If none of those apply, the meeting should have been a message.

So the first job is the agenda, and a real agenda is not a list of topics. It is a list of questions. "Budget" is a topic. "Do we approve the extra spend on the new supplier?" is a question, and a question can be answered in the time available.

The second job is deciding who has to be there. Every extra person makes the meeting slower and quieter, because a large room encourages people to wait rather than to speak. Invite the people who will make the decision and the people who hold the information. Send the notes to everyone else.

The third job is the ending. A meeting that ends with general agreement has ended with nothing. Before anyone leaves, say out loud what was decided, who is doing what, and by when. Write it down while people are still in the room, because the moment they walk out, three different versions of the same conversation walk out with them.

None of this is difficult. It is simply unpopular, because it makes the meeting shorter, and a short meeting can feel like a meeting that did not matter. It is usually the opposite.