What would an efficient and trustworthy meeting culture look like?

Perceived value and overuse of meetings

• Many agree meetings are overused, often substituting for effortful problem-solving or clear thinking.
• Others note the alternative—problems being ignored with no meetings—can be worse; meetings at least surface issues.
• Several argue that in larger organizations, many meetings exist mainly to disseminate already-made decisions and maintain alignment.

Who should be invited & opting out

• Strong support for “only invite people who must be there,” though some managers want broad invites to avoid missing political context or opportunities.
• People describe tactics to decline or drop from meetings: asking “am I needed?”, requesting an agenda, or silently leaving when no clear role exists.
• A recurring line: “no agenda, no attenda.” Some companies even formalize the right to decline agenda-less invites.

Cost awareness

• Multiple participants like real-time “meeting cost calculators” showing the salary cost of time in the room; examples from large companies are “frightening.”
• Others warn this can create perverse incentives, reveal pay disparities, or become a gamified metric.

Agendas, minutes, and outcomes

• Broad consensus that good meetings need:
  • A clear agenda and context (“why are we here?”).
  • Documented decisions, action items, owners, and deadlines.
  • Follow-up and traceability across meetings.
• Some use AI transcription to auto-generate minutes, though integration with task systems is still rough.

Meetings vs written/asynchronous communication

• Many endorse text as the primary way to spread knowledge; meetings are best for decisions and nuanced discussion.
• Others argue that for small, fast-moving teams, a short live call can beat long chat/email threads.
• Chat tools can be useful knowledge bases if channels are well-structured; others find them chaotic and hard to search.

Social, political, and cultural roles

• Standups and “tea party” meetings are seen as lightweight social glue, especially for remote teams.
• Several note the political function of meetings: status signaling, hierarchy reinforcement, “rumor-driven development.”
• Culture is seen as set (or broken) by leadership: enforced agendas and respect for time dramatically improve meeting quality.