(Some) meetings are useless

There is a trendy opinion that all meetings are useless.

That is one more example of destructive “binary thinking”. Very few things in business and life can be classified as absolutely good or bad.

If a meeting has a clear purpose and objective, as well as outputs/outcomes, it is certainly useful.

Most meetings don’t have the above, so they are useless.

Meetings to communicate and discuss things are very often a waste of time and can be substituted by an e-mail exchange or a slack message.

On the other hand, co-creation meetings are very useful. There is something magical in collaborative drawing, writing, designing, programming.

1:1 meetings are useful too. It’s still the best way to build a relationship with someone, and that should be of interest to founders, leaders, and managers.

Good all-hands meetings are very powerful to build community and engage the company.

I always feel fulfilled after a useful meeting when there is a tangible creation during the meeting (a document, design, code, etc.). Sometimes it does not have to be more than a set of decisions or action items.

And last but not least, the goal of any team is not only performing and being efficient but also bonding. A fun and deep retrospective meeting can be a great mechanism for empathizing and bonding with the team.

How to have efficient meetings?

IDOARRT is a good method to start with:

https://toolbox.hyperisland.com/idoarrt-meeting-design

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