Meeting or Email?
- Jun 16
- 1 min read
No one wakes up thinking, “I hope I spend more time in meetings today.” And yet, that is often what happens. Before scheduling the next one, ask: Is this meeting needed—or just a force of habit?
In Death by Meeting, Patrick Lencioni says most bad meetings come down to two things:
No context
No real debate
No context = meeting déjà vu
People show up wondering, "Why am I here?". They’re unprepared, key people are missing, and somehow a follow-up meeting gets booked.
Fix: Send a short agenda or pre-read. Give people a reason to show up prepared.
No debate = polite… and pointless
Everyone nods. No one questions anything. The meeting ends, and the real conversation happens later, perhaps even after the critical decision was made.
Fix: - Ask better questions- Invite different perspectives- And resist the urge to go first (yes, leaders—this one’s for us)
If there’s no clear purpose and no real discussion…it probably should’ve been an email.
How do you make your meetings a valuable use of everyone’s time?
What are your criteria for choosing to send an email rather that calling a meeting?
