If you're growing a company or leading a team, it's important to have a strong meeting culture. Good meeting culture ensures that everyone is on the same page, communication is clear, and decisions are made efficiently. Unfortunately, not all teams have good meeting culture. In fact, many teams struggle with ineffective meetings that waste time, energy, and even money.
When a company meeting culture is varied, poor, or simply not fit for purpose, it will have a major impact on the business. Poor meeting culture will lead to misalignment, miscommunication, frustration, and even conflict among team members. This will lead to difficulties in making decisions, achieving goals, and completing everyday tasks.
Large corporations address meeting culture by incorporating unconventional methods into their meeting practices. For example, Facebook has a "no meeting" day every Wednesday, which allows employees to have uninterrupted time to work on their projects. Virgin Atlantic Airways holds "walking meetings," where employees take a walk around the block while they discuss business. Other companies encourage standing meetings, which have been shown to improve focus and efficiency.
Not every company gets this right though, for example, Google's meetings are notorious for being "unproductive." The company has even been known to hire outside consultants to help improve the meeting culture.
While these methods may not be practical for every team, it's important to understand that meeting culture is important and impact every aspect of your team.
Over the years we have grown to consider meeting culture consisting of three distinct parts: