Crafting Clear Objectives for Virtual Meetings

After chatting with 100+ execs over the past 6 months, everyone told me the same thing: they want to stop wasting valuable time in useless meetings. The best resource I’ve found on effective meetings is Matt Mochary (exec coach trusted by co’s like OpenAI and Coinbase). Here’s what he recommends: 1. Assign a meeting owner - Someone who manages logistics and agenda - Ensures structured, efficient use of time 2. Define the desired outcome - Set a clear, measurable goal - Share it in writing with all participants 3. Leverage async preparation - Share updates + documentation in advance - Require pre-writes for discussion topics 4. Enforce async work - Demonstrate prep work as a group first - Gradually transition to independent async work 5. Timebox the synchronous agenda - Nurture personal connections (5 mins) - Elaborate on issues (5-20 mins per topic) - Provide real-time feedback (5-10 mins) 6. Drive towards action - Break down solutions into specific tasks - Assign owners and tangible due dates 7. Track every action - Use a PM tool or spreadsheet - Foster accountability and alignment 8. Collect written feedback - Request input after every meeting - Use feedback to continually improve Important note: implementing these changes takes time. Be patient and adjust if you need to – and ensure that your team is 100% on the same page. The result? More productive meetings and more efficient teams. Check out Seam's full playbook on effective meetings below ⚡  https://lnkd.in/gR2bXwRJ

How I Lead Effective Meetings as a Program Manager at Amazon. Meetings can either be a powerful tool for decision-making or a frustrating time sink. Early in my career, I struggled with unstructured meetings—great discussions but no clear outcomes. One chaotic project, where we held frequent but ineffective syncs, taught me that meetings aren’t just for talking; they should drive action. Here’s how I lead meetings now: 1️⃣ Set a Clear Agenda (and Share It in Advance) Every meeting starts with a structured agenda that includes: ✔️ Objective: What we need to achieve ✔️ Discussion topics: Prioritized for focus ✔️ Attendees: Only those necessary 📌 If an agenda isn’t clear, I challenge whether the meeting is even needed. 2️⃣ Keep Meetings Decision-Oriented Before starting, I clarify: ✔️ What decisions need to be made? ✔️ Who is responsible for next steps? If discussions drift, I refocus: “This is important but let’s table it for a separate deep dive.” This keeps meetings productive instead of open-ended. 3️⃣ Ensure Follow-Through with Clear Recaps A great meeting means nothing if action items aren’t tracked. After the meeting, I send a quick recap with: ✔️ Decisions made ✔️ Action items + owners ✔️ Next steps 📌 I also log action items in a shared tracker to ensure accountability. Bonus: Reduce Unnecessary Meetings Before scheduling, I ask: Can this be solved via Slack, email, or a written update? At Amazon, concise narratives often replace meetings—allowing for more deep work. Final Thoughts A well-run meeting aligns teams, drives decisions, and prevents wasted time. The best compliment I get? “That was one of the most productive meetings I’ve been in.” How do you keep your meetings effective? #Meetings #Productivity #Leadership #ProgramManagement #Amazon

$36,000,000,000… That’s how much money U.S. businesses waste every year in useless meetings. That’s the equivalent of having 600,000 people each making $60,000 to sit in an office all day and do absolutely nothing. At Process Street, we’ve eliminated 90% of our “useless meeting time” And we made a guide on how we did it… It’s called, How to Run Business Meetings That Aren’t a Complete Waste of Time: 1. have clear objectives EVERY meeting needs a clear, written statement identifying the purpose of the meeting. The same way you hold an employee accountable to goals, you need to hold a meeting accountable to its objective. A good objective of a meeting could be the executive team discussing a strategic change and how to roll it out to the company A bad objective would be a roundtable status update that could’ve been an email. 2. Invite the right people If the meeting is not relevant to someone’s work. They are better off missing the meeting and just doing their work. 3. Stick to the agenda Do not just walk in to a 60-90 minute calendar block and start to casually talk about the objective. That’s a recipe for wasted time. Instead, decide what is going to be discussed in the meeting beforehand, set an agenda, and allot time for each specific item. Send the agenda to people inside the meeting before it begins. If they understand and can visualize the agenda throughout the meeting, it’s WAY more likely the agenda is actually followed. 4. Don’t let it be derailed Most meetings get derailed and off topic, especially when someone starts rambling. Whoever is in charge of the meeting needs to rule it with an iron fist and frankly cut people off if they get off topic. My policy here is to interrupt the rambler first and ask for forgiveness later. It may be a rude thing to do, but every 5 minutes someone rambles could mean 1 hour of wasted time if 12 other people are in the meeting. 5. Start and end on time If you have flex time where people can show up a minute or two late, or the meeting can go a minute or two over to finish the conversation, then you’ll always have meetings where both of those things happen. Just as you would hold the meeting accountable to its objective, hold it accountable to the clock. 6. No distractions Have you ever been in a meeting with someone constantly checking their phone? Or a zoom call where it’s obvious someone is doing emails? Create a 0 tolerance policy for this. Or, if someone believes they can check out of the conversation, they probably should have not been involved in the first place. 7. Create memos Meetings are useless without stated outcomes. Whatever the objective of the meeting was, create a memo with notes on who talked about what, key takeaways, action items, and whether the objective was completed or not. Then, share the memo with everyone who was in the meeting. Follow this process and I promise you'll run meetings 90% better than you currently are.