8 Ways to Never Have a Bad Meeting Again

Bad meetings aren’t just unpleasant; they’re bad for business. They waste time, drain morale and focus people on the wrong stuff.

Good meetings, on the other hand, can drive growth. A culture of good meetings can impact your business far more than Facebook funnels or great email subject lines. Good meetings mean a more productive team. 

At PostPilot, we know how easy it is to get meetings wrong. That’s why we use the Level 10 framework from Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). 

“We call them level 10 meetings because on average, people rate their meetings at a four, maybe a five,” said Derek Anderson, a leadership coach and professional EOS facilitator. “We want to lift those meetings up to a 10. By the end of the meeting, everybody walks out the door like, yes, that was a great use of our time. We're all on the same page moving forward.” 

Here’s some of the expert advice Anderson shared on the Nerd Marketing podcast for saving time, boosting productivity and increasing trust with great meetings.

1. Consistency is King

Level 10 meetings take place on the same day, at the same time, and for the same duration every single week. Each session follows the exact same agenda. 

The method behind this madness: The meeting doesn’t get shuffled around, which signals how important it is. There’s no time wasted with date and time confusion. Everyone knows the structure, so there are fewer detours and less wasted time. 

Consistency also helps build trust, Anderson said. 

“One of the keys to running a great meeting is the team itself has to have a high level of trust in one another,” he said. 

2. Avoid Everyone’s Life Story

“A lot of traditional meetings turn into status updates,” Anderson said. “You just go around the room and everybody just wants to talk about what they're working on.” 

That’s true even if what someone is doing doesn’t necessarily impact the rest of the group or warrant discussion. 

Level 1 meetings start with each team member sharing a piece of good news, personal or professional. That keeps everyone connected and human. But it’s brief and fast-moving. 

3. Keep Reporting Tight

After the five-minute introduction, the Level 10 meeting moves straight into reporting. Don’t get into backstories or explanations—simply run through the KPIs that you are monitoring each week, and note what’s getting accomplished and what is not. 

“That's one of the most difficult things,” Anderson said. “You can have something that's off track or on track for the week and usually somebody wants to talk about it.” 

It’s important to be disciplined about the beginning, so you don’t eat up all your meeting time discussing something that isn’t actually a top priority. There’s ample time for discussion, but it comes later in the process. If something is off track, note it for the discussion period. 

4. Prioritize without Mercy 

“Meetings tend to suck because they get sidetracked,” Anderson said. “The lunches in the lunchroom suck, and then you just talk about that for 20 minutes instead of talking about the top priority for the company.” 

Often, something gets discussed because the CEO brought it up, or a team member was especially vocal about it—not because it’s important. 

Running a great meeting means identifying the most significant topics to talk about. Some of that happens as you’re running through the early stages of a meeting—you might note KPIs that are lagging behind or customer service problems that are popping up.  

“Whenever somebody goes off tangent, say, ‘Hey, that's something we need to discuss later,’” Anderson said. “You drop it into an issues portion of the meeting where you then dedicate the time to sorting them and only talking about the top two or three each week.” 

Those get saved for the meatiest portion of the meeting, called IDS (for identify, discuss and solve). Ruthlessly prioritize issues based on their importance and dig in.  

5. Stick with the IDS System

 IDS might seem a little opaque, but it’s actually pretty simple. You apply it to each issue on your list of priorities, in order. 

First, figure out the root cause of the problem. 

Then, you dig in and discuss the issue from multiple angles.

Finally, once the discussion starts getting redundant, you move to S, which is "solve.” 

“What's the actual action that's gonna come out of this?” Anderson said.  “Who's gonna be responsible for it?”

There’s an accountability aspect to IDS: At the next meeting, seven days later, when you go through your reporting, you’ll be making sure that the team is implementing the solutions from the week before. 

6. Props Are Acceptable

Meetings can be fun and disciplined, Anderson said. They can even be related. 

Some businesses buy buzzer buttons that playfully keep meetings on track. Anderson has also used stuffed animals that have specific symbolism—tossing a cow to someone communicates that they're trying to protect a “sacred cow” instead of considering the greater good of the organization. A bull goes to someone who’s BSing, and so on. 

7. Engage in Healthy Conflict

“Good, healthy conflict is essential for growth of a company,” Anderson said. 

Healthy conflict means friction between ideas, not people. It means that people feel comfortable voicing opinions, and innovative thoughts. 

“I find that comes from leadership,” Anderson said. “When the CEO and the CMO start pushing back on each other's ideas, I think everybody else in the meeting realizes that that's acceptable.

When productive conflict is welcome at meetings, it’s the sign of a healthy team.  

8. Run Remote Meetings the Same Way

EOS doesn’t just work for in-person meetings, Anderson said. 

With virtual gatherings, “you have to be extra attentive to the level of trust that's on the team,” he said. “Making sure everybody's camera is on, that everybody's fully engaged, people aren't looking away and kind of doing email on the side.”

That all goes back to being thoughtful about how you lead meetings—which will in turn spill into how you run your business. The goal, as always, is being great.