We’ve all been in at least one of those meetings… you know, the ones that should have been an email. Or the email stream that goes back and forth cc-ing and distracting 10 different people over the course of an afternoon, that should have been a 5 minute zoom meeting.

Finding the right balance between zooms, phone calls, chats, texts, in person meetings (do we still do those?) is key to efficiency within your business.

The question of what should be a meeting – and what shouldn’t – can often be circumvented by setting regular, mandatory attendance team, department and project team meetings.

If you are going to schedule a meeting, always state the purpose of the meeting in the calendar invite and include further information if possible. And, as a modern approach, include a Zoom or Teams link for the meeting – even if most the team will be in the office that day.

Keeping meetings on track is best achieved with an agenda – and that doesn’t have to be a traditional agenda. Using your team’s project management and task list tool (e.g. Teamwork, Trello, Asana) as the run sheet for a meeting, can be an effective way to ensure that the critical items are covered.

In some cases, a traditional agenda is necessary. Consider this – instead of listing out topics, pose the questions you want answered in the meeting. This will ensure interaction, which is why you called the meeting in the first place. If you don’t have any questions to ask, then you may not need a meeting.