Building Block: If Your Meetings Don’t Lead to Action, Why Have Them?
Most business leaders have attended meetings that could have been emails.
And probably a few emails that should never have been sent.
Meetings are expensive. When eight people spend an hour together, that’s eight hours of time the company will never get back.
So what did the company get in return?
Today, AI makes that question even more important.
AI can summarize project updates, generate reports, capture meeting notes, and identify action items. Information that once required a 60-minute meeting can often be shared in minutes.
That’s good news.
But it also means we need to rethink why we’re meeting in the first place.
In my experience, the most productive meetings accomplish three things:
- Create alignment. Everyone understands the priorities and what success looks like.
- Solve problems. Issues are raised, discussed, and resolved before they become bigger problems.
- Establish accountability. People leave knowing what needs to happen, who’s responsible, and when it’s due.
At Intertech, we’ve long used daily huddles and other regularly scheduled meetings to keep people connected and focused. The structure matters because it creates a predictable opportunity to surface issues and maintain momentum.
But structure alone doesn’t make a meeting valuable.
A meeting without a purpose is just a calendar invitation.
AI gives us an opportunity to eliminate much of the administrative work surrounding meetings. Let’s use that time to have better conversations, make better decisions, and spend fewer hours sitting in meetings that accomplish little.
The goal isn’t more meetings.
It’s more progress.
From The 100: Making Meetings Matter
Building Block #86 emphasizes that meetings deserve the same intentional approach as any other investment of company resources.
The principle is especially relevant today. Technology can make meetings more efficient, but it cannot replace the leadership, judgment, and accountability that make them worthwhile.
Before scheduling your next meeting, ask one simple question:
What should be different when this meeting is over?
If you can’t answer that, perhaps you don’t need the meeting.