In partnership with
Leadership Challenge - "WHAT MEETINGS SHOULD I CANCEL RIGHT NOW?"
Answer: Any meeting without a decision or a clear owner.
Go through your calendar.
If a meeting doesn't end with a name and a date, "Who owns this? When is it due?", cancel it.
No exceptions.
Most meetings are theater.
People talking to feel productive.
Cut the theater.
Keep the decisions.
Everything else is time theft.
Question to Consider: What decision does each meeting produce?
Why:
Here's what's happening: you have 20 meetings a week.
Half are status updates.
Could be emails.
Half are discussions.
No decisions.
Everyone leaves and nothing changes.
The cost?
Your calendar is full.
Your team's calendar is full.
No one has time for real work.
Productivity craters.
Your best people resent the meeting culture.
They leave for companies where they can actually work.
The ones who stay are the ones who love meetings.
Now you have a team that talks instead of does.
You created this by tolerating pointless meetings.
You're the leader. You set the standard.
If meetings are pointless, that's on you. Every meeting should produce a decision and assign an owner. If it doesn't, it shouldn't exist. Status updates belong in email. Discussions without decisions belong nowhere.
Action: Audit your calendar today. Look at every recurring meeting.
Ask: what decision does this produce? If the answer is "none," cancel it.
Make it a rule: every meeting ends with a name and a date.
No decision?
No meeting.
Do this for your team too. Watch productivity double. Your best people will thank you.
Stay Unfiltered,
— Andy
P.S. Meetings without decisions are time theft. Ask yourself, should this be an email?
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