There's a meeting on your calendar that's been there so long you've forgotten why it exists.
It started as a one-off. A project kickoff. A response to a problem. And then someone put it on the recurring calendar and it became... permanent.
Now it happens every Tuesday at 10am. And you've been in it for two years.
The Problem with Meeting Traditions
When a meeting becomes a tradition, it stops being evaluated. Nobody asks if it's still serving a purpose. Nobody asks if it should continue. It just... continues.
And because it continues, people stop investing in it. They come because it's on the calendar, not because they need to be there. They half-pay attention. They check email. They wait for it to end.
The meeting is still running. But it's not serving anyone.
How Meetings Become Traditions
The project that never ended
A meeting was scheduled to coordinate a project. The project ended. The meeting didn't.
The crisis that was handled
A meeting was called to handle an emergency. The emergency was handled. The meeting became a "preventive check-in."
The champion who left
Someone championed a meeting because they needed it. They left the company. Nobody else needed it, but nobody wanted to be the one to cancel it.
How to Break the Habit
The test
Ask one question: "If this meeting didn't exist, would we create it today?"
If the answer is no, cancel it. Don't feel bad about it. The meeting was probably overdue for cancellation.
The experiment
Try canceling it for one month. See if anyone notices. See if anything breaks.
If nothing breaks and nobody complains, you've found a meeting that should have been canceled a long time ago.
The replacement
If the meeting serves a real purpose but has lost its way, try a different format. Shorter meetings. Async updates. Different attendees.
Don't assume the meeting is bad because it's been bad. Maybe it just needs to be redesigned.
The Real Question
The real question isn't whether to keep the meeting. It's whether the meeting is worth the time it costs.
Every meeting has a price tag. The time of everyone in the room, multiplied by their hourly rate. That's what the meeting is actually costing.
If the meeting isn't worth that cost, cancel it. Your calendar — and your team — will thank you.
The meetings that become traditions are the ones that need the most questioning.
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