Top Tips For Effective Team Meetings

Did you ever watch the BBC comedy Twenty Twelve? The spoof documentary followed the team organising the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Most of the scenes took place around a boardroom table, with the characters discussing seemingly unimportant issues for hours on end. Does that sound familiar?

Meetings are a necessary part of working life and, done properly, they're a valuable tool. But for many people they feel like a waste of time, and sometimes they're thoroughly demoralising for everyone involved. The fix is mostly simple: a clear purpose, the right people, an agenda, a firm finish time and actions with names on them. Here's how.

Meeting Room

What do meetings mean to you?

When software company Atlassian surveyed 5,000 knowledge workers across four continents in 2024, meetings came out as the biggest barrier to getting work done (Atlassian, Workplace Woes: Meetings):

78% said they're expected to attend so many meetings that it's hard to get their work done
51% had to work overtime at least a few days a week because of meeting overload
76% felt drained on days with a lot of meetings
80% said they'd be more productive if they spent less time in meetings

Atlassian also found meetings were ineffective 72% of the time, usually because there was no clear purpose and nobody left knowing what happened next.

Make your meetings count

So most people think there are too many meetings - and we thought the biggest time waster was social media! How can you make sure your meetings are useful, productive and something your team looks forward to rather than dreads?

Here are our top tips:

Know why you're having a meeting - be clear about why you're holding it and what you want to achieve. It might be a weekly gathering to update your team, a meeting to decide a course of action or a chance to solve a problem together. They're all good reasons for getting everyone together. Holding a weekly meeting just because you think you should is not! Meet when people need to talk something through live: to solve a problem, weigh options or reach a shared decision. If it's only an update, an email, a shared document or a short recorded message might do the job, with a deadline for any replies. And cancel a recurring meeting when there's nothing on the agenda.
Think about the best time to meet - not everyone will be at their most alert at 9am on a Monday, or at their most productive at 5pm on a Friday. Think about your team and when they're likely to respond best. When online scheduling service WhenIsGood analysed 100,000 responses to 34,000 meeting requests, Tuesday at 3pm was the time people most often accepted, and 9am on Monday the least (BBC News, 2009). That measures when people were free, not how productive the meeting was, so try a few different days and times, check the calendars of the people you need, and see what suits you.
Invite only the people you need - everyone in the room should have a reason to be there: to decide, to contribute or to act. Others can read the notes afterwards. If a specialist is only needed for one item, invite them for that item rather than the whole meeting.
Set an agenda - this is the best way to make your meetings useful and meaningful. Briefly list the points you want to cover and give each item a set amount of time, the outcome you want from it and who will lead it. If you haven't reached a conclusion in the time, defer it to the end of the meeting or hand it to a smaller group to deal with later. Crucially, it's up to whoever's running the meeting to stick to the agenda and the timings.
Circulate the agenda - send it round in advance, ideally at least a working day before, with any reading people need, so they have time to think about the topics. Not everyone is good at thinking on their feet, and some people come up with much better solutions or ideas when they've had time to mull an issue over.
Keep it short - no matter how much you like the sound of your own voice, the biggest bugbear with meetings is that they go on too long. Keep your agenda short: no more than about five items is plenty for a regular team meeting. Start on time, give each item a short burst and finish when you said you would. Name a chair to keep things moving, a note-taker and a timekeeper; in a small meeting one person can do two of these. For a quick daily update, try a stand-up meeting of 10-15 minutes.
Involve everyone - the main point of a team meeting is to get everyone involved. Some people will happily speak up, but don't forget the quieter ones. Give people a moment to think, invite those who haven't spoken, accept written comments, and stop interruptions. Don't put a quiet person on the spot with no warning, though: that's what the advance agenda is for. Do this and they might just solve your problem.
Listen - don't run a meeting having already decided how something's going to be done. If you invite people, be prepared to listen and take their points on board. If you don't, they'll quickly lose interest in taking part.
Set clear action points - at the end of the meeting, make sure everyone knows who's doing what. Give every action one named owner, a priority and a due date, so expectations are clear. Before you close, read back the decisions and actions. Ask someone to take notes, send them round within a working day, and check the open actions at the next meeting. A simple table works well:

Decision or action Owner Priority Due

Example: order chairs for the new meeting room Sam High Friday
Use technology well - we're all used to remote meetings over Zoom or Teams, although sometimes it's still more effective to meet in person. In a hybrid meeting, test the microphone, speakers, camera and screen sharing with a remote colleague beforehand. Give everyone the same agenda and documents, make sure the people on the screen can see and hear everyone in the room, ask one person to watch the chat and raised hands, and give remote colleagues a turn to speak first so they aren't talked over.
Make it fun - meetings are about getting things done, but that doesn't mean they have to be as dull as ditchwater. Create a relaxed atmosphere, leave room for a bit of humour, and you'll find your team opens up and plays a more active part.

Decision or action	Owner	Priority	Due
Example: order chairs for the new meeting room	Sam	High	Friday

Set the room up for the meeting you're having

The layout of the room changes how people take part, so match it to the job:

Discussion and problem-solving: a round or square table puts everyone on an equal footing and makes it easy to see each other.
Decisions and formal meetings: a long boardroom table, with the chair at the head, keeps things orderly.
Workshops: small groups round movable tables, with somewhere to write and stick up ideas.
Presentations and training: seats facing the screen, or a U-shape if you want discussion too.
Quick catch-ups: stand round a high table, or book a small meeting pod for two to four people.

Before you buy, count the people, measure the room and allow space for chairs pulled out from the table, room on the table for laptops or papers, and a clear view of the screen from every seat. Comfortable conference chairs matter for anything over half an hour, and good light and a screen everyone can see matter in every meeting. Our guide to choosing the right conference table covers sizes and shapes in more detail.