HBR Guides to Being an Effective Manager Collection (5 Books) (HBR Guide Series)

CHAPTER 2

Stop Calling Every Conversation a “Meeting”

by Al Pittampalli

When both a 500-attendee event and a two-person discussion are referred to as “meetings,” it’s difficult to suss out a gathering’s true purpose and to know how to prepare to make it successful. In order to have fewer, more purposeful meetings, we need a more robust vocabulary to describe them. So let’s do some renaming, starting with three common “meetings” that you’ll soon realize aren’t really meetings at all.

Meetings with just two people are actually conversations. Whereas meetings with ample attendee lists require an agenda, plenty of preparation, and an articulable purpose, one-on-one discussions need not be as rigorous. They aren’t weapons of mass interruption, and ...