The Meeting Disease: Why Hacks Fail and Clarity Prevails
We love to hate meetings.
Too many, too long, too little value. It’s the most universal workplace complaint out there. And it’s gotten so bad that “let’s not have another meeting” has practically become a badge of honor. In response, leaders and experts have doubled down on meeting hacks—timers, agendas, “no meeting Wednesdays,” or fancy door signs that declare, “This meeting could’ve been an email.”
But those are band-aids. They treat the symptoms, not the disease.
Ann Latham, in her excellent book The Power of Clarity, gets right to the root cause:
“We have rules about how to control people by having properly formatted agendas, keeping minutes, assigning timekeepers, positioning big clocks, confiscating phones, locking doors, removing chairs, and imposing fines on late arrivals – all thanks to countless training sessions, books, and articles. But I’ve got news for you. Contrary to popular belief, the cause of unproductive meetings is not a lack of control over people… The main reason meetings are unproductive is that most meetings begin without anyone knowing what must be different when they end.”
Let that sit for a moment.
Anne’s point is clear, and so is her solution. When I interviewed her for my book, she told me the secret to effective meetings lies in asking a few key questions before things even kick off:
“What are we trying to accomplish in this meeting?”
“What will be different when we’re done?”
“How will we get there?”
Sounds simple. But try it. Most meetings can’t answer even one of those questions upfront.
Meetings are incredibly powerful when used well. They can be the rare time when a group of smart people come together to drive a strategy forward, solve problems, and create real alignment. But only if they’re built on a foundation of clarity and purpose.
The next time you’re about to schedule a meeting, don’t start with the calendar invite. Start with clarity. It’s not about eliminating meetings. It’s about eliminating meaningless ones.
