Meetings

Meetings can be a very costly investment — we would think very carefully about spending \$500, so we should think even more carefully about scheduling an hour-long meeting with 8 people.

The following guidelines are designed for minimal, yet effective meetings:

1. Goal oriented — Meeting invites should include a clear agenda, otherwise how will people know that the meeting will be worth their time?
2. As brief as possible — Start on time and stick to the agenda — don’t wait for people, if they’re late its for a good reason, your accurate notes should be enough for them to catch up on anything they’ve missed.
3. Open meeting notes — Keep open meeting notes with clearly documented outcomes and action items so that anyone who wasn’t in the meeting can quickly understand the value and to-dos.
4. Open door policy — When the meeting is no longer relevant to you, leave — don't sit in 2-hour long groomings if you're only contributing or getting value from 10 minutes of it.

Further Reading

1. How to Run a More Effective Meeting
2. Meetings — A culture of excess that hurts our productivity and morale
3. Meetings are Toxic
4. Status meetings are the scourge