Now this probably isn’t news to anyone who’ve worked in a team setting for some time, but meetings without clearly defined goals are a pure waste of time. Without a clearly defined goal, the topic of the meeting will most likely just drift from one topic to another and at the end of the allocated meeting time everyone will leave the meeting with no info gained and lots of time lost.

Signs of meetings without goals (and reasons to exist)

  1. No meeting agenda
  2. No clearly defined end goal (not defined when the meeting is “done” from a topic perspective)
  3. Lot’s of people are invited even though they probably won’t speak a single word during the meeting
  4. The meeting time is at least 1 hour, preferably more

Conclusion

Let’s all avoid those meetings and definitely avoid creating such meetings and forcing your coworkers to waste their precious time.