Most meetings are a waste, let it ring through the halls! Thus, most people go into meetings expecting them to be a waste of time. When you ask for a meeting, it is too often that the response is an invisible roll of the eye.
One way to combat that is to only ask for meetings when they are indeed valuable.
So, you should definitely do that, at least as much as possible. In addition to that, there’s a better way to combat this meeting fatigue and low meeting expectations: always send out a meeting agenda.
Even if the agenda is just 2 lines, that is a universe better than sending out no agenda at all. It will probably take you as long to think and mail out the agenda as it would to dial into the call.
There are a few reasons why sending out meeting agendas beforehand is useful.
First, it lets everyone know why they’re meeting, so you don’t go into a meeting completely blind as to what will be discussed.
Second, it lets everyone prepare for the meeting, so they aren’t surprised by anything and can have an adequate response to the issues that come up.
Third, it shows that you are investing thought and preparation into the meeting, and you always want everyone you work with to think you put thought and preparation into everything you do (even better if you actually put thought and preparation into it.)
Fourth, it shows that you’re not calling a bullshit meeting but a real one, so you’re not wasting anyone’s time.
Fifth, it gives all an excuse to skip the meeting, if indeed that meeting would be a waste, which is too often the case. If it becomes clear that you want to discuss an issue that people have separately figured out, or that can be discussed in 5 minutes over chat, for example, then no need to have the meeting.
Why don’t more people send out the meeting agenda beforehand? One reason is that no one prioritizes it, but one of the meta themes of this series is that the little things add up to big things.
Discussing this topic with an old and good friend of mine who is now a VP at SAP in Germany, he told me that at SAP they have their own in-company lingo and that one word they have is “NATO meetings,” which stands for “No Agenda; Talk Only.” I’ve since adopted this phrase because it perfectly and humorously captures the style of agendaless meetings: talk, talk, and only talk.
