In this week's newsletter

• Why “it could have been an email” is rarely the whole story
• Tips for building stronger asynchronous communication norms
• Warm-up and check-out questions you can use today
• Your weekly bird break

When I ask leaders for their biggest meeting pain point, the one I hear most frequently is, “meetings that should have been an email!”

We’ve all been in those meetings and I have vented this line myself many times.

But do you think your boss was thinking, “today I’ll waste everyone’s time?”

I don’t.

And my hunch is that you, dear reader, have led at least one of these should-have-been-an-email meetings yourself.

So what’s actually going on?

In my experience, most times when we feel like a meeting could have been an email, one (or a combo) of these three things are to blame:

Root Cause #1: Calendar autopilot. Often a meeting that could have been an email is the symptom of an overloaded leader operating on autopilot:

“We’ve always done the staff meeting this way.”

“I don’t have time to write it up so I’m just going to tell the team when we’re together.”

“The lowest lift next step here is sending a calendar invitation to the people involved, naming it the topic at hand, and we’ll figure out next steps when we get there.”

If you’re the meeting leader, here’s what I’ve seen work to fix: name the reason for the meeting, then pressure-test whether it needs to be synchronous:

• What kind of conversation is this: sharing info, gathering input, making a decision, something else?
• Do you need multiple perspectives or contributions?
• Does this truly need to happen live, or would an async update work?

If you can’t answer those questions, that’s your signal to pause before defaulting to the calendar invite.

What to ask as an attendee:

• Could you share a bit more about what you hope to achieve in this meeting, so I can prepare?
• Is there anything specific I can do to prepare for our time together in advance?

Root Cause #2: No room for meeting attendees to engage

Facilitator and author adrienne maree brown writes in Emergent Strategy:

When we’re in a meeting, we want to add value, not just passively receive information. That said, sometimes there are good reasons to share information in a meeting. For example, you need to announce an upcoming reorg in the room because it's sensitive and everyone needs to hear it at the same time.

When that happens, it helps to create space for the group to meaningfully engage with the information and move work forward in some way.

If you’re the meeting leader, click here for an information-sharing meeting design guide with multiple ideas for structuring engagement.

If you aren’t the meeting leader, you can still advocate for a more engaging meeting:

In advance: I think there’s an opportunity for us to use this time to plan communication for this change, not just inform the team, and I have some ideas for how to structure (share the link above!)

In the moment: I have a few questions and I imagine others do, too. Could we all take two minutes to jot down questions and then go around to answer as many as possible?

After: I really appreciated the time we had to discuss the implications at the end. Next time we share an update like this, could we experiment with spending even more time engaging vs. sharing? Perhaps we could share some info in advance or give everyone 5 minutes to read at the beginning, then spend the bulk of the time on discussion.

Root Cause #3: Broken Asynchronous Communication Norms

Sometimes people routinely don’t read their emails or complete pre-work.

If the meeting could have been an email but no one is going to read the email, could it actually have been an email?

Maybe not. At least for now.

If this is the issue, the next question is: how might we communicate asynchronous updates in a way people will actually internalize? I’ve included a simple transition plan to build stronger asynchronous norms in this week’s deep dive section (below).

Now What?

As leaders, it’s our responsibility to ensure our meetings earn their space on our teammates’ calendars.

As team members, we can ask for what we need and offer suggestions to help a leader on autopilot make more intentional decisions, make meetings more engaging, and/or make asynchronous communication more effective.

Next time you think, “grrr this could have been an email,” ask yourself:

Meeting Minute

​Warm-up question​

Reflecting on this can give you good data as a leader to understand what kinds of meetings are feeling useful for folks. You may get ideas you can work into your own future meetings. This can also help build awareness of effective meeting practices among leaders in the room.

​Check-out question​

This is especially effective to get feedback on a recurring meeting you lead. It works best if the group has developed strong psychological safety and feedback norms.

To make it easier for folks to give feedback, you could ask people to submit anonymously on post-its as they leave or split into pairs/small groups to discuss and share back themes.

Deep Dive: Transitioning to Stronger Asynchronous Communication Norms

You worked hard on a pre-read. Three people didn’t read it, so you spent half your meeting walking through background anyway. One person did read, and they’re frustrated they wasted their time.

If the meeting couldn’t have been an email because no one reads your emails, the problem isn’t the meeting, it’s your asynchronous communication norms.

Here’s a short transition plan to help your team build the habit of engaging asynchronously.

Step 1: Name the shift

Use language like:

• “I want meetings to be for discussion, not information sharing. I’m going to start sharing more asynchronously.”
• “This only works if we all commit to reviewing it. I’ll make it clear when something is mandatory.”

Step 2: Use a hybrid bridge (for 2–4 weeks)

Instead of hoping people read the update, build the habit and demonstrate the value:

• Send a short summary in advance (bullets are fine)
• Start the meeting with 5 minutes of silent reading
• Use the rest of the time for questions, sense-making, and decisions

Step 3: Explicitly shift the expectation

Once people are engaging reliably:

Set the expectation that the pre-read happens before the meeting

Remove the in-meeting reading time

Step 4: Test whether people are actually engaging

Alternate among the following lightweight checks:

• Warm-up: “What’s one question you have about the pre-read?”
• Ask for an thumbs up reply in Slack after reading and before the meeting (follow up with anyone who doesn’t reply)
• Have some fun with it: “I’m going to quiz you, because unless we’re all reading this, we’re going to opt back into meetings that could have been emails.”
• Start discussion immediately, no rehashing the memo

Troubleshooting

Make the written pre-work easier for people to follow

• Put the ask in the first line: “Please read before our meeting tomorrow. We’ll spend the meeting on questions + next steps.”
• Keep it short enough that someone can read it in under 3 minutes
• Put decisions and asks in bold (or on their own bullets)

If written updates aren’t landing, experiment with different formats

• A voice memo or short video might land better.
• Encourage your team to digest on 2x speed while taking a walk!

Create an explicit subject line norm to help people meet your expectations

• Example: Subject line: “ACTION REQUIRED: Please read before Thursday”

What norms for meeting pre-work have worked for your team? Reply to let me know!