A Reading in the Salon of Mme Geoffrin" by Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier

Ineffective meetings are a massive disruptor for a company and a fast route to mediocrity

What makes a good meeting?

Are most meetings even necessary?

Did the last meeting you attend provide utility to you and to the company?

I've personally found meetings to be a major disruptor to my productivity, it breaks my flow, and makes focused, long blocks of work impossible.

Christ Lovejoy proposes the following to define the utility of a meeting:

• rate of information exchange: the amount of new and relevant information each member of the meeting acquire
• rate of decision making: the amount of collective decisions made, and the overall impact of those decisions

I like his point about how an 1 hour meeting x 8 people is not just an 8 hour cost to the company. There could be a 10x engineer who could've utilized a 4 hour blocks of time, but had to convert it to a 2 x 1.5 hour blocks to squeeze in a meeting. 4 hour blocks of time are precious, and the nature of work that can be completed is qualitatively different, and typically more valuable.