Advice

The Meeting Epidemic: Why Most Corporate Gatherings Are Productivity Black Holes (And How to Fix Them)

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Nobody ever puts "attended brilliant meeting" on their CV, do they?

I've been facilitating workshops and training sessions across Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth for the better part of two decades now, and I reckon I've sat through more soul-crushing meetings than a mid-level public servant. The thing that gets me is how we've normalised the absolute dysfunction of it all. We've somehow convinced ourselves that gathering eight people in a room to discuss whether we need another meeting is peak professional behaviour.

Last month I was called into a major retail chain (won't name names, but let's just say they're everywhere) to help sort out their "meeting culture." The regional manager sheepishly admitted they were spending 73% of their working week in various meetings, committees, and "quick catch-ups." When I asked what they'd accomplished in the previous quarter, there was an awkward silence that lasted longer than most TikTok videos.

Here's my controversial take: most meetings shouldn't exist.

And before you start typing your strongly-worded LinkedIn comment, hear me out. The majority of what passes for meetings in Australian businesses today is actually just poorly disguised procrastination with a fancy conference room booking. We've turned "let's have a meeting about it" into the corporate equivalent of "let's put a pin in that."

The Real Problem Nobody Talks About

The fundamental issue isn't that people don't know how to run meetings. It's that we've forgotten why we're having them in the first place. I see teams scheduling weekly "alignment sessions" where nobody can articulate what they're trying to align. I've witnessed "brainstorming meetings" where the most creative thing that happened was someone suggesting they needed another brainstorming meeting.

It's madness.

The worst part? Everyone knows it's broken, but we keep doing it anyway. Like some sort of corporate Stockholm syndrome where we've fallen in love with our own inefficiency.

What Actually Works (Based on What I've Seen, Not What I've Read)

After years of helping businesses across Australia streamline their operations, I've noticed three types of meetings that actually justify their existence:

Decision meetings. These have a clear question that needs answering and someone with the authority to make that decision present. Revolutionary concept, I know.

Information sharing meetings. But only when the information is too complex for an email and involves genuine two-way discussion. If you're just reading from a PowerPoint, send a bloody memo.

Problem-solving sessions. Where you've got a specific problem and the right people in the room to solve it. Not to discuss whether you should solve it, or to form a committee to investigate solving it later.

That's it. Three types. Everything else is probably just an expensive way to avoid doing actual work.

The Meeting Hygiene Most Leaders Ignore

Here's where most managers get it wrong - they think running a good meeting is about having better agendas or fancier technology. It's not. It's about basic respect for everyone's time and mental energy.

Start on time. Seriously. If the meeting was scheduled for 2 PM, start at 2 PM. Not 2:05 because Sarah's running late from her previous meeting. Not 2:10 because we're "just waiting for a couple more people." Starting late signals that everyone's time is negotiable, which is a terrible precedent.

End on time too. Or better yet, end early. I once worked with a CEO in Adelaide who made it a point to finish every meeting at least five minutes early. His reasoning? "If we can't cover what we need in 55 minutes, we probably shouldn't be meeting about it."

The guy was onto something.

Why Status Updates Are Killing Your Team's Soul

This might ruffle some feathers, but here goes: status update meetings are where productivity goes to die.

You know the ones. Everyone sits around a table (or stares at Zoom squares) and mechanically recites what they did yesterday, what they're doing today, and any "blockers" they're facing. It's like some bizarre corporate confessional where everyone pretends to care about Dave's database migration progress.

Here's the thing - if your team needs a meeting to know what everyone else is working on, you've got bigger problems than meeting efficiency. You've got a communication problem, a clarity problem, or possibly a trust problem.

Most status updates can be handled with a simple shared document that people update throughout the week. Or a quick Slack channel where people drop updates when they have them. Reserve face-to-face time for conversations that actually require human interaction.

The "Quick Question" Trap That's Destroying Focus

I need to have a word about something that's been driving me mental lately: the "quick question" phenomenon.

Picture this: you've blocked out two hours for deep work. You're in the zone, making real progress on something important. Then someone pops their head over your cubicle (or worse, calls an impromptu Zoom) with a "quick question" that somehow turns into a 45-minute discussion about project timelines, resource allocation, and whether the office coffee is getting worse.

Sound familiar?

The problem isn't the questions themselves. The problem is we've created a culture where every query requires immediate face-to-face resolution. We've forgotten that most "urgent" questions aren't actually urgent - they just feel that way to the person asking.

What I Got Wrong About Remote Meeting Management

I'll admit it - when remote work became the norm in 2020, I was convinced that video meetings would solve most of our meeting problems. Smaller groups, clearer agendas, better time management. How wrong I was.

Instead, we just transferred all our bad meeting habits to Zoom and added new problems on top. Now we're dealing with Zoom fatigue, technical difficulties, and the bizarre phenomenon of people being more distracted in video calls than they ever were in person.

The solution isn't better technology or fancier platforms. It's being more selective about when we actually need to see each other's faces.

The Australian Context That Overseas Consultants Miss

Here's something I've noticed working primarily with Australian businesses: we have a cultural tendency to over-consult. We love getting everyone's input, building consensus, making sure no one feels left out. It's part of our egalitarian spirit, and generally speaking, it's a good thing.

But it's also why our meetings tend to balloon out of control.

In cultures where hierarchy is more pronounced, meetings can be brutally efficient because one person makes decisions and everyone else implements them. That's not how we roll in Australia, nor should it be. But we can find a middle ground between autocracy and endless consultation.

The key is being clear about what type of input you're seeking. Are you asking for information? Opinions? Approval? Or are you just keeping people informed? Different purposes require different approaches.

The Meeting Minimalism Experiment

About six months ago, I started working with a mid-sized consulting firm in Sydney that was drowning in meetings. Their senior staff were spending so much time in conferences that client work was being pushed to evenings and weekends.

We implemented what I call "meeting minimalism" - a three-week experiment where they cancelled all recurring meetings and only scheduled new ones that met strict criteria:

Clear decision to be made or problem to be solved
Right people (and only the right people) in the room
Maximum 45 minutes duration
No laptops or phones unless directly relevant to the agenda

The results were immediate. Client satisfaction scores went up. Employee stress levels went down. They completed more actual work in those three weeks than they had in the previous two months.

But here's the interesting part - when they went back to their normal meeting schedule, the quality remained higher. Once people experienced what focused, purposeful meetings felt like, they couldn't tolerate the old way of doing things.

The Politics of Meeting Pushback

Let's be realistic for a moment. Not everyone reading this has the authority to revolutionise their organisation's meeting culture overnight. If you're a middle manager or team leader, you might be thinking, "This all sounds great, but I can't exactly tell the CEO that their weekly all-hands meeting is a waste of time."

Fair point.

But you can start with what you control. If you run team meetings, make them better. If you get invited to meetings that don't need you, politely decline with a brief explanation. If someone asks you to organise a meeting, suggest alternatives first.

Small changes create ripple effects. When your team starts finishing projects faster and seems less stressed, people notice. When you consistently provide clear, actionable updates without needing a meeting, you set an example.

The Technology Trap

Don't get me started on meeting room technology. We've somehow convinced ourselves that the solution to bad meetings is better screens, fancier booking systems, and AI-powered transcription services.

It's not.

I've been in million-dollar boardrooms with crystal-clear video conferencing and seamless screen sharing, where people still spent half the time figuring out who was talking and the other half discussing things that should have been handled offline.

Technology should make meetings easier, not more complex. If you need a user manual to start your meeting, you've already lost.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Meeting Culture

Here's what nobody wants to admit: bad meeting culture is often a symptom of deeper organisational problems.

When teams have too many meetings, it's usually because:

Decision-making authority isn't clear
Communication channels are broken
People don't trust each other to work independently
There's no shared understanding of priorities
Managers feel they need to be involved in everything

Fixing meetings without addressing these underlying issues is like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. It might make you feel better temporarily, but it doesn't solve the real problem.

What Good Meeting Culture Actually Looks Like

I worked with a tech startup in Melbourne that had cracked the code on meeting efficiency. Their secret? They treated meeting time like the precious resource it is.

Every meeting had an owner (not just an organiser), a clear outcome they were trying to achieve, and a hard stop time. If they couldn't reach a decision or solve the problem in the allocated time, they'd either schedule a follow-up with different people or acknowledge that maybe a meeting wasn't the right approach.

They also had a cultural norm around declining meetings. It wasn't considered rude or antisocial to say, "I don't think I can add value to this discussion, but please keep me informed of any decisions."

The result? They spent less time in meetings but made better decisions faster. They had fewer conflicts because expectations were clearer. And people actually looked forward to the meetings they did attend because they knew they wouldn't be a waste of time.

The Five-Minute Rule That Changes Everything

Want to immediately improve your meeting culture? Implement the five-minute rule.

If you can't explain why a meeting is necessary and what you hope to achieve in five minutes or less, you're not ready to have that meeting.

This forces you to think clearly about purpose, preparation, and desired outcomes. It also makes it much easier for people to understand whether they need to attend.

I've seen this simple rule eliminate roughly 40% of unnecessary meetings in organisations that consistently apply it. The meetings that survive tend to be much more focused and productive.

The best part? It's not about being harsh or antisocial. It's about respecting everyone's time and energy enough to make sure meetings are worthwhile.

Look, I'm not suggesting we eliminate all meetings and communicate exclusively through spreadsheets and Slack messages. Good meetings - the kind where people leave feeling energised and clear about next steps - are genuinely valuable.

But most of what we call meetings today aren't really meetings at all. They're habits we've dressed up with conference room bookings and calendar invites.

The solution isn't better meeting rooms or fancier technology. It's being more intentional about when we gather, why we gather, and what we hope to accomplish when we do.

Your future self (and your team) will thank you for it.