In most companies meetings have become a habit nobody defends but everybody attends. The problem is not meeting; it is meeting with a vague agenda, too many attendees and no output. The five rules below need no new tooling.
Every invitation should state three things: what we will discuss, what decision we will make, and who should arrive prepared with what. If those three cannot be written, the meeting is not ready. Make it a rule that an agenda-free invitation may be declined.
Meetings expand to fill the time allotted. Moving the default from sixty minutes to twenty-five usually closes the same topics anyway, and the leftover minutes become breathing room between back-to-back calls.
Inviting everyone feels courteous but raises both cost and duration. The more attendees, the longer decisions take. Include only those who will decide or contribute directly; everyone else can read the notes. Being informed and attending are not the same thing.
Reserve the final five minutes and write down: what was decided, who does what, by when. A meeting that closes without those three lines will be scheduled again in two weeks with the same agenda. The real output of a meeting is those three lines, not the discussion.
Most weekly meetings begin from a genuine need, then the need ends but the meeting continues. Every quarter, review every recurring meeting and ask one question: if this meeting did not exist, would we create it today? If the answer is no, remove it.
Some meetings should never happen. In these three cases a written update is enough:
Teams applying these five rules usually see a clear drop in meeting hours, but the real gain is elsewhere. The real gain is that the remaining meetings are genuinely necessary and people arrive prepared. A short empty meeting is just as harmful as a long one.
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