Not all meetings are the same. Treating them as if they are is a common mistake.
Here are the seven types of meetings, and when each actually makes sense.
1. The Decision Meeting
Purpose: Make a decision
When to use: When you have a clear decision to make and the right people in the room to make it
When to skip: When the decision can be made asynchronously, or when you don't have enough information yet
2. The Information Sharing Meeting
Purpose: Distribute information
When to use: Rarely. Most information sharing can happen via email or a shared doc
When to skip: When the information doesn't require discussion or clarification
3. The Brainstorming Meeting
Purpose: Generate ideas
When to use: When you need creative output from group dynamics — not just individual ideas
When to skip: When you need decisions, not ideas. Or when the problem is well-defined and you just need execution
4. The Status Update Meeting
Purpose: Share progress
When to use: Almost never in its traditional form. Consider async status updates instead
When to skip: When a shared doc can convey the same information faster
5. The Relationship-Building Meeting
Purpose: Build trust and rapport
When to use: 1:1s, team offsites, first meetings with new collaborators
When to skip: When the relationship already exists and the meeting is just a status update in disguise
6. The Problem-Solving Meeting
Purpose: Solve a complex problem that requires real-time back-and-forth
When to use: When the problem has many dependencies and tradeoffs that need to be worked through together
When to skip: When the problem can be broken into smaller decisions that can be made asynchronously
7. The Retrospective Meeting
Purpose: Learn from what happened
When to use: After a project, sprint, or significant event
When to skip: When there's nothing meaningful to learn, or when the same issues keep coming up without action
The Key Question
Before scheduling any meeting, ask: what type of meeting is this, and is that the right format for this purpose?
Most meetings that fail are the wrong type for their purpose. A status update meeting used to make a decision will fail. A brainstorming meeting used to share information will fail.
Match the meeting type to the meeting purpose.
The best managers run fewer meetings by running the right types of meetings for the right purposes.
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