Why Your Team Needs a Meetings Detox
by Margie DuBois, CPC
January 8, 2025
We’ve all seen that fantastic coffee mug that reads (a version of): “I survived another meeting that could have been an email.”
While it gives everyone a good laugh, it also gets a major eye roll.
That mug is popular because it’s painfully accurate. Most teams meet way too often and have ineffective meetings.
This leads to disengagement during meetings and a lack of clarity on what happens outside of the meetings. Employees become stressed, grumpy, and burnt out.
There are many factors driving the excessive meeting trend, but at a high level, it’s because leaders are not looking at the root causes that drive their meeting behaviors or doing anything to change their team’s habits.
Here are some key reasons why your organization may need to take a closer look at your meetings, and consider a bit of a detox.
Reason #1: Your employees don’t have enough time to get actual work done outside of meetings
Perhaps the most obvious reason why you should scale back on your meetings is that your employees don’t have enough time to get their work done outside of the hours you’re meeting.
And I’m not just talking about basic to-do lists. I’m talking about really impactful and important work. Strategic planning. Making phone calls to stakeholders. Revisiting the goals from their last performance review. Professional development training. Designing team retreats.
When people have sufficient time for head down work and key priorities, they can put their greatest superpowers to use and make a real impact at your workplace. So don’t rob them of the time they need to get things done and then ask them why they aren’t doing enough.
Reason #2: Your organization lacks strategic direction or has too many goals
One of the reasons why meetings pile up is because of a lack of clarity or communication on your business strategy and goals.
If you don’t have a strategic plan or your goals are too complex for people to understand their individual responsibilities, you’ll end up meeting more frequently. Everything will feel like a priority. People will feel stressed, pulled in different directions, and worry they aren’t measuring up..
Each employee should have clear annual goals that support the larger goals of your organization. If someone constantly comes to wanting to meet to clarify what they should be working on, it may be time to revisit team goals and narrow down your priorities. Remember, less is more.
Reason #3: You’re attached to outdated traditions or team norms
So often, teams have excessive meetings because of one debilitating reason: “it’s the way we’ve always done things around here.” This makes me cringe (almost more than the mug).
Maybe your leadership team has met on the first Monday of every month for the past five years because that’s what the group has always done. Or maybe there is one person on that team who loves that particular meeting and maintains a lot of influence with the group.
If your team is committed to a regular group meeting, it should have a very clear and necessary purpose that supports your company goals. Participants should agree that the meeting is essential, enjoyable, and adds value. The group should also be aligned on how often the meeting should happen.
Reason #4: Having too many meetings is not optimal for the human brain
While some people have exceptionally good executive functioning skills, most do not. And the human brain is not designed to multitask or be interrupted all day long. Most employees have multiple meetings every day with short blocks in between to “get work done.” This is a recipe for failure and exhaustion.
The most productive employees have a strategic weekly schedule that includes larger blocks of quiet time that don’t get snatched up by meeting requests. Their weekly schedule also co-exists with a healthy team culture that honors the time people have blocked off on their calendars for non-meeting work.
In short, you can’t build momentum and make a big impact with your work if you only have short intervals to get things done. And for employees with neurodivergent brains or disabilities, this feels almost impossible.
Reason #5: You’re numbing team challenges with meetings instead of brave conversations
Perhaps my favorite reason of them all is the (sometimes) unspoken reason why people want to meet all the time: fear.
Fear cultures breed bad meeting habits. When there is a lack of transparency, trust, accountability, or communication outside of meetings, people start getting anxious and become addicted to meetings.
They meet because they want reassurance. They meet because they don’t feel heard. They meet because they don't trust the person they're working with. They meet because they don’t understand the vision of their organization or how they fit into it.
But what ends up happening is teams meet about surface level topics instead of getting down to the root of issues that need to be addressed. They avoid the brave conversations and begin spinning their wheels.
If you consistently feel tension in the room during one of your standing meetings, something deeper needs to be addressed. Enlist the support of a coach or consultant to help you navigate the issues, and schedule a one-off meeting to dive in.
. . .
Not sure how to evaluate your meetings? Consider the following solutions:
Try out a one-month meeting audit. After every meeting, have each attendee rate the meeting on a scale of 1 to 5 (and record their answers). A “5” rating would mean that they got tremendous value out of the meeting and found it was worth their time, and “1” rating would be a meeting that should absolutely have been an email. After the month is over, calculate an average rating for each standing meeting. Decide which meetings to cut, which ones to revamp, and which ones to scale back on. For anything that’s below a 5, determine an action plan to get it to a 5, and designate someone to keep the group accountable for the change.
If you're a manager, have each of your employees design their ideal weekly schedule, including the blocks of time they’d ideally like for “head down” work or non-meeting time. See what they come back to you with, and do your best to accommodate their requests.
Check in with your direct reports to ask them what is (and is not) working for them with your 1:1 communication and meetings. See how often they’d like to meet with you, and where they're needing the most support. If they request something that is not feasible for you, ask them open-ended questions that get to the root of what’s going on. What they may actually need from you is more empathy. Or more training. Or a one-off meeting to revisit their goals.
Institute a company-wide “no meetings” day of the week. This is one day of the week where people are not allowed to schedule meetings and where employees commit to doing their most important work. Try it out for six weeks and see how it goes.
Stop having standing meetings on Monday morning. It is quite possibly the worst popular meeting norm of the modern working world. At the beginning of the work week, people need time to get organized and prepare for the week. They also might not want to socialize within the first hour of the day. Your meetings will be way more productive if you build a cushion at the beginning of the week. Consider Tuesdays as your target day for standing team meetings and check-ins. See which meetings you can shift from weekly to biweekly - or even monthly.
Streamline your org wide communication. If you are a CEO or a senior leader, there’s a very good chance your employees want to hear from you more often, learn what you are working on, and understand how their role fits into the big picture of your organization. The more you communicate, they less people will have a need to meet (assuming your communication methods are effective).
Prioritize culture and connection. If you don’t carve out intentional time for your team to connect and get to know each other, it will trickle into your standing meetings.
Stop using regular meetings as a Band-Aid for team conflict. Enlist the support of a coach or consultant who can help you navigate team communication and culture challenges so they don’t lead to awkward repeat meetings.
. . .
When you think about it, we have a very limited amount of working hours. If you take the total working hours in one month and subtract standing meetings, breaks, and other events, it leaves very little time for people to get things done or meet about big picture topics.
Giving employees the time and privacy they need to do their jobs builds trust and creates greater outcomes for your business. Don’t be the company that causes your employees to buy that mug.
About This Feature
Coaching Nuggets is a standing editorial feature in The Thirlby Co. Monthly Digest written by our company founder, Margie (Thirlby) DuBois, and occasional guest authors. Each nugget provides you with a quick read and resources to spark ideas and help you live your best life. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive this feature and more inspiring content in the future.
