How to Run Meetings That Create Decisions, Not More Work

Research & Sources / Communication & Influence

In a good restaurant kitchen there is a counter called the pass. Cooks place finished dishes there, the head chef checks them, and waiters carry them out. Plates leave the pass every few minutes. Imagine a kitchen where dishes are discussed, admired, sent back for more discussion, and never leave. That is what many meetings feel like.

The meeting problem

Leslie Perlow, Constance Noonan Hadley and Eunice Eun surveyed senior managers about meetings. Most said meetings were unproductive and inefficient and kept them from deep work.¹ Michael Mankins and colleagues showed how a single recurring meeting can quietly consume huge amounts of time across a company each year.²

Many meetings end with “let’s discuss this again next week” or “let’s set up a follow-up”. The meeting created more meetings, but no decisions.

Know what kind of meeting it is

Most meeting confusion comes from mixing purposes. There are roughly three kinds:

• Information: sharing updates. Often better done in writing.
• Discussion: exploring a question, collecting views.
• Decision: choosing between options and committing.

If everyone thinks it is a discussion and the leader expects a decision, or the other way round, frustration is guaranteed.

A decision meeting format

Before: send a one-page note with the question to decide, the options and a recommendation. People read it beforehand.

Start: “Today we decide X. By the end of this meeting we will have chosen between A and B.”

Discuss: hear concerns and alternatives. Ask the quieter people first.

Decide: name who decides if there is no agreement. Make the decision before time runs out, not “offline later”.

Close: repeat the decision, who does what, and by when. Write it in one line.

Small changes that help a lot

• Shorter defaults: 25 or 50 minutes instead of 30 or 60.
• Fewer people: invite those who decide or must act, and inform the rest afterwards.
• No agenda, no meeting.
• Cancel recurring meetings that have not produced a decision in a month.

Fair process matters

Decisions made in meetings stick when people feel the process was fair: they were heard, the reasons were explained, and expectations are clear afterwards. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne found that this kind of fair process creates commitment even among people who disagreed.³

What this means for you this week

• Label each of your meetings as information, discussion or decision.
• Turn one information meeting into a written update.
• Run one decision meeting with a one-page note sent beforehand.
• End every meeting with the decision, the owner and the date in one line.

Dishes are meant to leave the kitchen. Decisions are meant to leave the meeting.

Sources

1. Perlow, L. A., Hadley, C. N. & Eun, E. (2017). Stop the Meeting Madness. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgSurvey of senior managers: most said meetings were unproductive and kept them from deep thinking.
2. Mankins, M., Brahm, C. & Caimi, G. (2014). Your Scarcest Resource. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgOrganisations rarely budget time the way they budget money; one recurring meeting can consume hundreds of thousands of hours a year.
3. Kim, W. C. & Mauborgne, R. (2003). Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgPeople commit to decisions they disagree with if the process was fair: engagement, explanation and clear expectations.