Why Most Meetings Fail (And What They Reveal About How We Work)
Most meetings fail not because they are badly run, but because they are badly conceived. This essay explores why meetings reveal how organisations really think — and how clarity turns conversation into action.
Editor’s note: This essay forms part of Cultivated’s wider exploration of communication, clarity, and how organisations turn conversation into action.
After two decades inside organisations, I’ve reached an uncomfortable conclusion.
Most meetings are ineffective by design.
Not badly run.
Badly conceived.
Too many people.
Too little clarity.
Too much politeness.
Too little judgement.
And yet meetings sit directly between idea and value.
They are one of the most expensive habits modern organisations maintain.
Not only in time, but in attention, energy, and morale.
When meetings fail, work slows quietly everywhere else.
What a Meeting Actually Is
At its simplest, a meeting exists for one reason:
To make a decision that no single person can make alone.
This definition quietly eliminates most of what fills our calendars.
A brainstorming session is a workshop.
A strategy away-day is a workshop.
A one-to-one is a conversation.
A meeting exists only when:
• information is distributed
• authority is shared
• judgement must be collective
If no decision is required, a meeting is usually a substitute for confidence.
The Hidden Structure of Bad Meetings
Most failed meetings share the same anatomy:
The wrong people are invited.
The purpose is vague.
No one knows who decides.
Time replaces outcome.
Consensus replaces judgement.
Large groups are particularly vulnerable.
They generate ideas easily.
They decide badly.
Responsibility dissolves as attendance grows.
Before booking any meeting, one honest question helps:
Could I make this decision alone?
If yes, do so.
If no, the meeting must earn its existence.
Meetings Are Cultural X-Rays
How an organisation meets reveals how it thinks.
Meetings expose:
Whether clarity is valued over comfort.
Whether authority is explicit or hidden.
Whether disagreement is safe.
Whether decisions are owned or avoided.
Meetings do not fail accidentally.
They fail in the shape and form of the culture that produces them.
A Few Principles That Actually Hold
There is no perfect formula, but a few principles endure.
Not techniques — disciplines.
Decide before you invite
If you cannot name the decision that needs to be made clearly, the meeting is already lost.
Shorter beats longer
Time expands to fill the slot. Thought rarely improves with it.
An agenda is a signal, not a formality
It tells people why they are here and what is expected of them.
Set a small number of shared norms
Not rules — agreements that protect attention and honesty.
Presence beats performance
The most influential people in meetings are rarely the loudest. They are the clearest.
Make outcomes visible
If nothing is agreed, communicated and aligned around, the meeting did not really happen.
These are not productivity tricks.
They are disciplines of thinking together.
Why Meetings Become Theatre
Many meetings exist to maintain the appearance of progress.
Slides replace judgement.
Metrics replace understanding.
Process replaces responsibility.
The ritual continues even when no decision is made.
The organisation feels busy.
Work remains stuck.
Meetings become performance rather than progress. And everything between idea and value slows down, ramping up costs.
A Familiar Scene
You arrive for a 10am meeting.
The previous meeting is overrunning.
You wait.
You make coffee.
You return to find everyone now waiting for you.
Key decision-makers drift in and out.
Statistics are celebrated, then quietly contradicted.
Frustration rises.
Blame surfaces.
Someone suggests another meeting.
The only decision made is to meet again.
This is not dysfunction.
It is normal.
Which is precisely the problem.
Why This Matters
Meetings are not administrative details or a way of working.
They are the operating system of collective good work.
They determine how quickly ideas move, how safely truth is spoken, and how reliably decisions become action.
When meetings fail, organisations drift.
When meetings improve, everything else follows.
Because meetings are where thinking becomes movement.
Or doesn’t.
Why Most Meetings Fail
Meetings fail when clarity is absent.
When purpose is vague.
When responsibility is hidden.
When politeness replaces judgement.
They succeed when groups learn to think together with discipline.
Not theatrically.
Not dramatically.
Simply clearly.
With purpose and a shared sense of outcomes.
Because in the end, meetings are not about time management.
They are about collective thinking.
And the quality of that thinking quietly shapes the quality of everything that follows.
