Meetings, But Make Them Useful
We’ve all been there wayyyy too often: a 45-minute meeting that could have been a Slack message, a status update that turns into a tangent-fest, or a recurring sync where everyone pretends to be engaged while secretly answering emails or playing Solitaire. Meetings are supposed to move work forward, not weigh it down.
If your calendar is packed and your team is exhausted, it’s time to take a hard look at how meetings are working—or not working—for your team.
Let’s talk about how to make meetings actually useful.
1. Know the Point and HAVE AN AGENDA Before You Hit Send
Every meeting should have a purpose. Not a vague intention like “alignment” or “touch base.” A real reason. What decision needs to be made? What feedback are you looking for? What outcome are you driving toward?
If you can’t write the goal of the meeting in one sentence, you probably don’t need a meeting.
Also, set an agenda. A good agenda is like a good map. It tells people where we’re going and how we’ll get there, and it doesn’t need to be fancy. Just list the key topics, who owns each one, and how long we’ll spend on them.
Share the agenda before the meeting. Start on time. End on time. If you finish early, even better. If you don’t have an agenda,
DO
NOT
HAVE
THAT
MEETING.
It’s a waste of everyone’s time and you’re just going to succeed in frustrating people further.
2. Invite the Right People (And Only the Right People)
Don’t default to the whole team unless the whole team is critical to the outcome. If someone is only there “just in case” or “so they feel included,” send a summary afterward instead.
Respecting people’s time is a leadership skill, and it’s one we don’t talk about nearly often enough.
Also, give people the option to opt themselves out. Yes, really. One of the best things you can do as a leader is tell your team, "If you’re not getting value from this meeting, or if you’re not needed for the outcome, you don’t have to come."
This encourages people to think critically about how they spend their time. It also forces meeting organizers to make meetings valuable enough to want to attend.
3. Don’t Confuse Talk With Progress
Meetings should lead to action. What was decided? Who’s doing what? By when? Did all of that get written down?
If you end a meeting without clear next steps, you just had a conversation. That’s lovely! I love a nice conversation.
But it’s not anywhere close to a productive meeting.
Assign owners. Set deadlines. Follow up. Otherwise, the meeting lives in memory only, and nothing changes. If it’s not written down, it does not exist and it may as well never have happened.
4. Default to Async When You Can
Not everything needs to be a meeting. Status updates? Use a shared doc. Quick feedback? Try Loom. Brainstorming? Let people contribute ideas before you schedule anything.
Reserve meetings for what they’re best at: live collaboration, decision-making, and nuance. Everything else can live elsewhere.
At The Threadsmith Group, we help teams build communication rhythms that actually support the work, not get in the way of it. If your calendar feels like a full-time job and your team still isn’t aligned, let’s fix that.
Your time matters. Your team’s time matters. Let’s make every minute count.