> If you think about what meetings are attempting to achieve, it's about allowing a number of people to participate in a conversation, achieve progress on some

> If you think about what meetings are attempting to achieve, it's about allowing a number of people to participate in a conversation, achieve progress on some decisions or plans, and if necessary communicate out the actions required. Broadly, every meeting fall under three categories - "Decision", "Information" or "Discussion". In any case, each of these three categories should lead to "Who does What by When" (WDWBW). In my personal experience, if WDWBW outcome is achieved - meetings move things forward. Otherwise, they don't do so much. Some things which have personally helped me to get towards WDWBW 1. Define Key Objectives for a Meeting 2. Define Agenda 3. Agenda has 4 parts - Topic, Owner, Expected Outcome, Duration, Time 4. Owner - The owner of the part of the agenda is expected to own the topic and drive it 5. Owner needs to pre-define the Expected Outcome beforehand. Broadly, there could be three outcomes - Information, Discussion or Decision 6. Moderator should keep a strict check on Time. Sometimes, if there's a overshoot - the moderator should either ask for team agreement to continue the topic for a limited time (10 min - for example) until the Expected Outcome is reached. If not, stop the meeting and move on the the next item on the Agenda.