32. Better Meetings
Run meetings that matter, chuck the rest
While I’m a big fan of fully async work, that’s not often the reality. We still need meetings. But most of them are bloated, unfocused, and a poor use of time.
The good news is that in almost every meeting, a significant portion of the work can be done asynchronously. Doing that not only saves time but also gives people space to think more clearly, run tighter meetings, and sometimes eliminates the need for a meeting.
Of course, there is an exception to every meeting here. These are guidelines, not rules. The point is - be more intentional about meetings. You need a lot less than you think. The best thing about fewer meetings is that it leaves more time for higher-quality spontaneous meetings. Like setting up a coffee chat with a cross-functional counterpart, or a person who works on an interesting problem in a different area in your company.
Meetings are also a great tool to talk about sensitive problems, get people excited about new projects, etc. It’s more effective if they are used sparingly.
Here’s a breakdown of common meeting types, their purpose, and which parts should be async vs in-meeting.
1) Status Update
Purpose: Share progress, next steps, and blockers.
This should be fully async. There is no reason to spend time every day trying to ask people for status updates that can simply be written down. It also forced accountability - to make sure folks do actual outcome-focused work.
What did we accomplish since the last update? → Async. Use a template. One line per workstream, with links to proof.
What’s next? → Async.
What’s blocking progress? → In-meeting only if a decision or escalation is needed. Otherwise, log it and tag the resolver.
2) Brainstorm / Ideation
Purpose: Generate creative ideas or solutions.
One of the useful meetings. But a lot of work can be done upfront. I’ve been in brainstorming meetings with no pre-work, and half of the meeting is lost in setting the context. It’s pointless to do brainstorming meetings without giving people time to think beforehand.
What’s the challenge or opportunity? → Async. Share a clear brief and guardrails.
What ideas can we explore? → Async first. Collect ideas in a board or doc to avoid groupthink.
Which ideas are worth refining? → In-meeting. Time-box selection using clear criteria. End with owners for the top ideas.
3) Planning
Purpose: Set goals, timelines, and responsibilities.
Writing things down brings clarity. Sometimes the need for a planning meeting completely goes away.
What’s our objective? → Async. Pre-read with the goal, scope, and non-goals.
What’s the timeline? → Async draft, in-meeting confirm. Bring a v1 plan and adjust live only where needed.
Who owns each part? → In-meeting/async Confirm RACI and deadlines.
4) Problem-Solving
Purpose: Address a specific issue and decide on a path forward.
What’s the problem? → Async. Provide data, constraints, and success criteria in advance.
What options do we have? → Async first. Share 2–4 viable options with pros/cons.
What’s our agreed next step? → In-meeting. Decide, assign an owner, and set a time frame. (sometimes it’ll turn out this can be done async too)
5) Retrospective / Post-Mortem
Purpose: Learn from what worked and what didn’t.
What went well? → Async. Collect notes in advance to maximise voices.
What could be improved? → Async collection, in-meeting discussion for sensitive or complex topics.
What will we do differently next time? → In-meeting. Turn insights into a small set of action items with owners. This mostly becomes a readout. Can be done async too. But probably a good idea to be intentional, depending on the magnitude of what went wrong.
6) One-on-One
Purpose: Build alignment, coach, and unblock.
Obviously, in person.
How are things going for you? → In-meeting. Human conversations don’t work well async.
Where can I help or unblock you? → In-meeting. Agree clearly on support.
What’s next for your growth or priorities? → In-meeting, then async to document goals.
7) Kick-Off
Purpose: Launch a new project or initiative.
Kick-off is a good ritual to bring excitement to the project, and that’s exactly what it should be used for. Instead of discussing project details, sell the vision, tell the story and get people excited about the opportunity and problem.
What’s the project goal? → Async. Share the brief so everyone starts aligned.
Who is responsible for what? → In-meeting/async. Confirm roles and responsibilities live.
How will we track progress? → In-meeting. Pick the cadence, dashboard, and decision forum.
The takeaway
Information gathering, status updates, and option listing are almost always better async. Use meetings for decisions, alignment on trade-offs, and confirming ownership.
If a meeting ends without an owner, a deadline, and updated notes, it wasn’t a good meeting. Always a good idea to ask “What would make this meeting successful” before the meeting starts, and see if you have achieved that.
Also, good meetings are about better writing. Writing will only be effective if the teams also have a reading culture. That’s a bigger problem to solve.
Most meetings should be fully async. If something can’t be resolved in the docs, run a short decision-making meeting.