<aside> 📌 This content was curated from McKinsey, HBR, KAM Coach, Slack & other great resources. Many organizations today are leaning into a “Do More with Less” culture and understanding how to organize better meetings can align well with this initiative.

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Three Questions:

• Should this even be a meeting at all? Check the effectiveness and efficiency of recurring meetings. Everyone should think twice before reflexively accepting meeting invitations as they appear in their inbox. The goal should be to treat work capacity as a finite resource (because it is).
• What is this meeting for?  A meeting’s title and its purpose are not the same. When the latter isn’t evident, meetings can seem frustrating at best and futile at worst.
• What is everyone’s role? Even if a meeting has a clear purpose, it’s of little use if no one is present to **make a decision.** Equally, even if it’s clear who the decider is, it’s a mistake to hold a meeting when people are unsure of participants’ roles.

Participant’s Roles:

• Decision-makers should be the only participants with a vote and the ones responsible for deciding as they see fit. Sometimes, decision-makers will need to “**disagree and commit.”**
• Stakeholders give input and shape the decision. They typically have a big stake in the decision’s outcome.
• Recommenders conduct analyses, explore alternatives, illuminate pros and cons, and ultimately recommend a course of action to the advisers and decision-makers. The more recommenders, the better—for the process, not the decision meeting itself.
• Execution partners | Responsible partners don’t give input in making decisions but are deeply involved in implementation. For optimal speed & clarity, execution partners should be in the room when the decision is made so that they can envision how the implementation will evolve from the decision.

Three Types of Meetings:

• Informational: Live interaction can be helpful for information sharing, especially when an interpretive lens is required or if the information is sensitive. However, information-sharing meetings are often regarded as having limited value. Netflix, for example, has limited the duration of meetings to a maximum of 30 minutes and requires that meetings involving one-way information sharing be canceled in favor of other mechanisms like a memo, podcast, or vlog. Early data from Netflix shows that the company has reduced meetings by more than 65% and that more than 85% of employees favor the approach. (Source: McKinsey)
• Alignment: This type of meeting includes routine decisions, like quarterly business reviews (QBRs), and complex or uncertain decisions, like investment decisions. To make high-quality decisions quickly, it’s critical to clarify precisely who will make them. Some meetings can be held virtually, but complex decision-making meetings are better in person. These meetings should result in a final decision (even if not everyone agrees).
• Problem Solving: In these meetings, the facilitator should work to empower employees to make their own (supported) decisions and spend more time on high-quality coaching sessions. As with decision-making meetings, creative solutions and coordinating meetings can be virtual or in-person (with tools & resources that will make it practical).

Meeting Agenda is Critical:

Every meeting should have an agenda! Seven elements should be included in your agenda for the most effective meetings:

1. Purpose & Expected Result(s) statement
2. Prework should be shared so that everyone comes prepared
3. Participants have been “ruthlessly selected”
   1. Only include those necessary (see above)
4. Write the agenda