If you’re a Suits fan like me, you’ll remember Harvey Specter’s iconic line: “I don’t take meetings. I set them.”

These days, I resonate with that more than ever. It’s become my mantra at work. But let’s be honest—I’m not always that lucky.

I regularly take stock of my workday and rate it: good, neutral, or bad. After some reflection, I noticed a pattern. The days I rate as neutral or bad almost always have one thing in common: I joined meetings that other people scheduled and invited me to.

Why is that?

In my experience, it boils down to a terrible—and sometimes downright toxic—meeting culture. Meetings are often scheduled without a clear purpose, filled with attendees, and lacking actionable outcomes. It’s draining. And while I can’t single-handedly fix the culture of a large organization, I can control how I show up as a leader—and how my team operates.

So that’s where I focus.

I’ve always believed in leading by example. If we want better meetings, we need to be better at meetings. Over time, I’ve become unapologetically ruthless with my time management. If I don’t guard my calendar, I end up spending hours in meetings that drain my energy and leave me scrambling to get real, important work done—the kind that actually moves the needle (see my previous blog post about prioritising work).

And that loss doesn’t just affect productivity—it chips away at my sense of accomplishment.

Let me describe the meeting culture I’ve encountered over the last couple of months—tell me if this rings a bell:

You receive a vague invite with a cryptic title and no agenda. You’re not sure why you were invited, and you spend more time than you should trying to piece together what the meeting’s about and how you’re expected to contribute.

Giving the organizer the benefit of the doubt, you show up. The room is full of attendees, quietly waiting for someone to take the lead. But Bob—a key stakeholder—missed the memo and isn’t present. That means one extra alignment with Bob afterward, and maybe even a reconvene.

Eventually, the organizer arrives and shares some much-needed context. Things finally start to make sense. You understand the purpose of the meeting and why you were invited. But one thought lingers: Was my direct involvement actually necessary? Could I have delegated this to a trusted colleague?

Despite the wandering conversation and frequent detours, the meeting finally ends—only for the organizer to propose a follow-up session in the coming days. As you log off or leave the room, a familiar thought returns: Was this truly a productive use of my (never mind our) time? With no clear goal and no measure of success, there’s no way to tell. What could have been a focused, meaningful exchange instead becomes just another calendar entry.

I once heard Jeff Bezos describe Amazon’s meeting culture, and I couldn’t believe my ears. Instead of relying on slides or spontaneous discussion, organizers prepare a detailed memo and share it with attendees in advance. At the start of the meeting, everyone reads the memo silently—giving space to absorb the context and align their thinking before diving into meaningful dialogue.

I love this. It shows how much thought goes into each meeting—and how seriously time is valued.

For every critical meeting I’m responsible for, I follow a set of principles to make sure it’s purposeful, engaging, and worth everyone’s time:

1. Invite with intent Only include people who can meaningfully contribute. Think carefully about who needs to be in the room, and jot down what you’ll need from each person to achieve the meeting’s outcome. You can keep this for your own records—or even include it in the invite.
2. Maximize attendance thoughtfully Once you’ve identified the right people, check their availability before setting the time. Outlook makes this easy. Still, it amazes me how often meetings land on top of existing ones, forcing people to burn energy just to respond politely or rearrange their calendars.
3. Share the purpose, agenda & outcome ahead of time Communicate your intentions clearly before the meeting begins—including the purpose, agenda, and desired outcome. This shows respect for attendees’ time and gives them the chance to come prepared—or opt out if their involvement isn’t needed.
4. Prepare for glitches & grilling If you’re presenting a demo or using tech, expect hiccups. Always have a Plan B. And anticipate tough questions—thinking through potential challenges beforehand strengthens your confidence and credibility.
5. Facilitate, don’t dominate Great meetings are conversations, not monologues. I’ve learned to pause and prompt others for input—especially those who are naturally quiet or come from cultures where speaking up isn’t the norm unless explicitly asked.
6. Follow up with purpose A written recap shows that something meaningful happened—and helps validate your own understanding of key points. End with clear action items, names, and deadlines. But here’s the trick: frame those actions as the group’s responsibilities, not just yours as the organizer.

It can also help to define a few ground rules upfront. For example, do we all agree to:

• Be on time (or no later than 5 minutes)
• Leave time for a short break before the next meeting
• Timebox certain topics to cover the full agenda
• Raise hands when we want to speak
• Etc.

As I was writing this, I couldn’t help but think: Isn’t this stuff obvious? Why am I spending time on something so trivial? Turns out, it’s clearly not obvious—at least not in many of the environments I’ve worked in.

By writing about this, I hope to inspire my colleagues and contribute to more value being extracted from the countless meetings we love to organize.

So now I’m turning it over to you. Meetings shape how we work, collaborate, and make decisions—but only if we’re intentional about them.

• What’s one habit or principle that’s helped you make meetings more effective?
• Have you ever reworked a recurring meeting to make it actually useful—or cut one entirely?
• How do you decide when a meeting is worth having in the first place?

I’d love to hear how others are approaching this. Let’s share what’s working—and challenge what’s not.