June 2026

The worst part of a worthless meeting is not the wasted time in the meeting itself.  It’s the spawn of that meeting.  It’s the meetings that it will beget.

You know how it begins.  A problem comes up, usually at another meeting.  Of course it needs to be solved asap.  Everyone looks at you because it’s probably your fault.  Paralyzed with fear, your mouth blurts out, “Oh yeah.  We have a meeting scheduled on that.”

Well, now you have to set up a meeting.  You send out desperate, emails, slacks, texts to anyone who might know something about the subject.  Some of them actually do show up, bleary-eyed and confused about the topic of the meeting.  None of them have prepared for it.  Critical people are missing.  At best you are able to explain the problem to those who remain conscious through the meeting, and then you schedule another meeting.

There is another way.  We discovered it quite by accident.