Best practices on building a better meeting culture

Unproductive meetings are a common problem in many companies. With hybrid work becoming more popular, it’s easier than ever to add participants to meetings without much thought. This makes meetings longer and less focused. A new study suggests that almost 70% of meetings make it harder for employees to finish their work.

It also helps each employee by not having to waste time in unnecessary meetings, which is both frustrating and unproductive. A study of 76 companies reported in this HBR article showed a 71% rise in productivity when meetings were cut by 40%. Employees felt more empowered to manage their own tasks, which boosted satisfaction by 52%.

In another case, managers rethought their meeting strategies, and after three months, employees reported notable improvements. Team collaboration increased by 42% and overall team performance by 28%. Moreover, the staff’s satisfaction with their work-life balance jumped from 62% to 92% (!).

Let’s take a look at how your organization can build a better meeting culture, with both physical, technological and psychological elements.

Create a culture where it’s OK to decline a meeting

Many people feel uncomfortable declining a meeting, even if they don’t need to be there. However, it’s important to make it acceptable to say no when a meeting just isn’t relevant. Encouraging a culture where employees can politely decline unnecessary meetings will be key. No one likes to feel that they are being impolite, but if this is a part of the culture and everyone has agreed that it’s not to be impolite but rather to respect other people’s time better.

This will help towards only having those who really need to attend are in the room, making the meeting more focused and productive. Others may instead just ask for a meeting summary afterwards.

Set meetings to a default of 45 minutes

Another simple way to improve meetings is to limit them to 45 minutes in the booking system. Meetings often take up more time than needed, simply because they’ve been scheduled for a longer block. Parkinson’s Law tells us that work will expand to fill the time available, and this applies to meetings too. If more time is needed, there should be a good reason for it.

This time limit should be set as a default in calendar invites. For most organization the default is 60 minutes - this in itself causes many meetings to be way longer than they need to be.

When the organization has become used to this default time, it’s possible to try an even lower default time limit of 30 minutes. You’d be surprised how fast this becomes a habit, and how it changes the meeting itself. A one hour meeting will eventually feel like forever when you get used to the shorter times.

Training to write clear agendas

Every meeting should have a clear purpose. An agenda helps make sure that the meeting stays on track and that everyone knows what to expect. If a meeting can’t have a clear agenda, it’s a sign that it might not be necessary. Writing an agenda forces people to think about why the meeting is needed and what outcomes are expected. This simple step can greatly improve the quality of meetings, and also reduce the total number of meetings. Not being able to set a clear agenda will be a signal to the employees themselves that the meeting is not needed.

However, keep in mind that this step, however simple it might seem, will require some getting used to and some training. In the age of AI chatbots, it can also become way to easy to have ChatGPT write an agenda, and go with whatever outcome it gives. This should be avoided, because it is not about just having an agenda, but an excercise making the meeting organizer think through

• Why is the meeting necessary?

• What is important to go through in the meeting?

• What is unnecessary to go through in the meeting, that can be kept outside of the meeting by including in the preparations or summary/meeting minutes?

Create some guidelines and templates on how to write an agenda. The key here is to keep it simple and to the point.

Send materials in advance

To make the most of meeting time, send any documents or presentations in advance. This allows participants to review the materials beforehand, so the meeting can focus on discussion and decision-making rather than reading through content. It’s an easy way to ensure that everyone comes prepared and that the meeting runs more smoothly.

It’s a good idea to send out the documents before the meeting, but don’t expect everyone to read them ahead of time. Instead, start the meeting with a silent period where each participant reads through the required documents. This ensures that everyone is prepared, even if they have a busy schedule and didn’t get a chance to review the materials beforehand.

The physical space as a symbol, reminder and force of change

The physical space can play an important role in driving change, if done correctly. By making physical adjustments to the office environment alongside cultural changes, you create a visible marker of progress. It sends a clear message to employees that "we are making changes now" rather than just discussing them without follow-through. Involving employees in the planning of these changes makes them active participants, and as they witness these changes happening around them, they are constantly reminded of the cultural shift.

The daily presence of a redesigned space also reinforces the new behaviors and attitudes the organization wants to promote, serving as a constant visual reminder of the transformation. With clear communication, this physical change becomes a symbol of the cultural shift taking place. Additionally, some physical changes can actively encourage new behaviors, or "nudge" people in the right direction, reinforcing the new ways of working that the organization is striving for.

For example, making more informal spaces suitable for short and small meetings (by equipment, room separators and so on) can encourage more spontaneous meetings (no need having to book a room in advance). Reorganizing meeting rooms to be smaller and more flexible might nudge teams to keep meetings short and to the point. Added bonus: it is much more sustainable and less costly to have smaller meeting rooms - most organizations have too many large rooms. Having a few meeting rooms with standup options can also be both a reminder and an actual trigger of shorter meetings.

The changes to the meeting spaces will be a daily reminder to employees of the changes happening in how meetings are run, both while the changes are taking place and once they are complete. With clear communication, these physical changes won’t just represent the cultural shift but will also help encourage new behaviors, making the change more noticeable and harder to forget.

Getting started

We encourage you to start by conducting an occupancy study to better understand your organization’s meeting patterns. This will give you a clear picture of where changes are needed and provide a baseline to measure progress.

It’s also a great way to identify if your meeting rooms are being used efficiently, as many organizations find they have more space than they actually need—often with rooms that are too large for their typical meetings.