The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Make Meetings Matter

Meetings are for people in big companies who don’t have better things to do with their time. They’re one of the biggest robbers of company productivity. A pointless meeting with five people that lasts an hour is not a waste of one hour of productivity, it’s a waste of five hours. On top of this, people usually hate everything about meetings. As a result, the fewer meetings you have, the more productive your organization and the happier your people.

Minimize the number of meetings at your company, and never have a meeting just for the sake of having a meeting (e.g., weekly recurring meetings). The best way to reduce the number of meetings is to start them with one simple question: What is the problem that we need this meeting to solve? If the problem you’re solving doesn’t require a meeting, work with people individually. The best case resulting from this question is that you realize that you don’t need to have the meeting, and everyone gets back to work. The worst case is that you now have a clear justification and intended outcome for the meeting. Either way, it’s a great question to get startup meetings on track.

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