So much has been written about meetings. 

There is 1 goal from having meetings – reduce confusion. 

Yea, some calls it alignment or whatever but I prefer the word confusion. It is precise.

Specifically, confusion stems from these questions:
DOES EVERYONE KNOW… 

– What the goals are?
– Why the goals are the way they are?

– How we plan to achieve these goals?
– Why we plan to achieve these goals the way we plan to?

– Who does what in executing these plans?
– Why we play these roles in executing these plans?

Or in other words:

– What +WHY
– How +WHY
– Who +WHY 

Meetings are pulse-checks on these “+WHY” questions:

– Townhalls to get the goals out
– One on one with a manager to ensure that she is not going to confuse her team
– Review meetings that focus only on observations, questions, and feedback, so there is a release valve for people to safely expose and express confusion (instead of a dog and pony show of “look boss I have no flaws I am doing my job please love me”)
– Walk-through (meetings) to clarify what good actually looks like
– Meetings to remind you that you are the mother of all confusion

I hope that wasn’t confusing. 

Work diligently and #bossbetter.

(Inspired by the great work by Talentism LLC)