How to Run Effective Meetings

Four-Step Framework to stop wasting every ones time

Image generated by AI ( Gemini ) to represent a team running a meeting.

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As a Technical Program Manager in big tech, I have run and participated in thousands of meetings throughout my career. I have also attended and facilitated my fair share of meetings that went nowhere and wasted everyone’s time. This is the framework I use today to make sure I am not repeating those same mistakes.

Step 1: Do we really need this meeting?

How many times have you been in a meeting and thought, “This should have been a Slack thread or an email”?

Before you click send on that calendar invite, question yourself. Do you actually need this meeting? Can the problem be solved by a carefully structured email? Can this conversation happen asynchronously via a Slack thread? If the answer is yes, please do not schedule a meeting.

When to schedule:

• You need a final decision faster.
• You cannot wait days for people from different time zones to reply to your email thread during their respective work hours.
• Your email thread or Slack conversation is going nowhere or turning into a heated debate.

Step 2: Preparation is Key

Stop winging it. Do not just schedule a blank slot on the calendar. Prepare with clear intention.

• Identify who needs to attend: Think about who the key decision makers are. Make sure they can attend or ask them to send delegates who can make decisions on their behalf.
• Have a clear purpose and agenda: Bring supporting materials. Write a document or prepare a presentation, depending on what matches your company culture. Do your research before the session.
• Be clear in the invite: Make sure your meeting invite clearly states why you are having the meeting, what the expected outcome is, and what people need to know or read before coming into the room.

Step 3: Meeting Discipline

How many times have you been in meetings that went so far off topic that you needed to schedule another meeting just to discuss the original point?

Make sure you have an agenda and stick to it. You must find the courage to steer the conversation back to the main point, even if that means interrupting your director or VP. Do not do it rudely. Always do it in a respectful way. Keep mental checkpoints throughout the call to evaluate whether the meeting is moving in the right direction and whether the current conversation helps you reach your goal.

Step 4: It did not happen if it is not written down

We all have limited memory. You need to capture exactly what happened in the meeting, what decisions you took, and the action items that came out of it. You can leverage AI tools to help polish your rough notes, but you must ensure the core details are captured.

Here is the bare minimum you should document:

• Date and Time
• Title
• Attendees
• Purpose
• Decisions Made
• Supporting Materials and Other Notes
• Action Items (Item, Owner, ETA)

Write these notes down, send them to all the meeting attendees, and keep a copy for your records.

Final Thoughts

Running effective meetings is a soft skill you need at any job role at any level. I hope this framework helps you save time, improve your productivity, and avoid unnecessary opportunity costs.

Disclaimer: The core ideas and structure presented in this article are solely from the author. A generative AI model (Gemini) was used to speed up the process of drafting and editing.