How we think about meetings and connection

How we meet plays a crucial role in culture and company performance. At a sub-component level it covers how we do meetings and how we connect.

Meetings are one of the most complained-about parts of company life, and post-2020 ways of working made the problem harder, not easier.

Document which meetings are sync vs async and what each is for. Broadly this covers company-wide rituals (town halls), team-level rituals (stand-ups, 1:1s), and informal connection (offsites, social time).

For each meeting or ritual, answer

• Why does this exist?
• What are we trying to achieve?
• What format is it (sync/async) and why?
• How and when does it happen?
• Who is it for?
• Where does it happen?

Design principles to weigh

• Values: a "work fast" or "default open" culture may not suit heavy meeting loads
• Distribution: the more global you are, the harder synchronous defaults become
• Functions: deep-work teams often need meeting-light cultures

1. What documentation do you have around meetings right now? What is missing?
2. How well have expectations been embedded?
3. When did you last review which meetings serve employees and which do not?
4. Is how we meet appropriate for when and where we work, trust and autonomy, org structure, and values?