"Meetings are the bane of my existence." I've heard this complaint countless times from people at every level of growing companies. Small companies typically start lean and focused on driving results, but as they scale meeting frequency soars, and effectiveness drops. Today, I want to help you fix that.

This matters more than you might think. For a team of eight people, a single hour-long meeting doesn't just cost one hour—it costs eight hours of collective productive time. That's an entire workday burned through without being sure you achieved a result.

Most people's response to this problem is either to accept it as an inevitable cost of doing business or to swing to the other extreme, declaring "no meeting" days that merely compress the same inefficient meetings into fewer days. But these approaches miss the fundamental issue: meetings aren't inherently bad—bad meetings are bad.

The real problem is that we're using meetings as a default response rather than a deliberate tool. With the right approach you can eliminate many of your current meetings while making the remaining ones twice as effective.

Here are seven key steps to improve your meeting culture:

1. Purpose: Create meetings with clear intent

2. Product: Define tangible outcomes before you meet

3. People: Include only essential contributors

4. Process: Design activities that drive results

5. Preparation: Enable meaningful participation

6. Practical Concerns: Handle logistics thoughtfully

7. Pitfalls: Anticipate and prevent problems

Let's explore how AI can amplify each of these principles to make your meetings more effective.

Purposeful Planning

The foundation of any effective meeting is its purpose. Before scheduling a meeting, use AI as your first filter. Try asking whether the objective of the meeting requires synchronous communication or could be achieved through asynchronous means.

Example Prompt: 

Analyze this meeting objective and determine:

1. Can this be accomplished asynchronously? Why or why not?
2. If a meeting is needed, what would be its specific purpose in one sentence?
3. What would be equivalent asynchronous alternatives?

Objective: [Insert your meeting objective]

Product-Driven Focus

Every meeting should produce something tangible. Use AI to define and structure your deliverables. A structured approach shifts the focus from abstract discussion to concrete creation.

Example Prompt: 

For a [type] meeting focused on [topic]:
1. What are 3 concrete artifacts this meeting should produce?
2. What is the minimum viable format for each artifact?
3. Create a simple template for capturing decisions and next steps.

People Selection Optimization

The right attendees make or break a meeting. Use AI to refine your invite list. This typically reduces attendance by 30-40% while increasing engagement. Note: This step probably requires more of your input than the AI, since it won’t have full context of the people and their background.

Example Prompt:

Review this attendee list and categorize each person as:
1. Essential Contributors (must attend live)
2. Decision Makers (needed for specific moments)
3. Informed Only (can receive updates)

For anyone not essential, suggest how to gather their input or share updates asynchronously.

[List attendees and roles]

Process Engineering

Design you meeting so that they shift from a simple gathering into a structured journey toward results. While most meetings meander through discussions hoping to reach an outcome, effective process engineering designs the path before anyone enters the room. The right sequence of activities can cut meeting time in half while doubling engagement. Think of it as choreographing a performance – every moment has purpose, every activity builds toward your goal.

Example Prompt: 

Create a detailed 60-minute meeting process that includes:

1. Opening (time allocation and activities)
2. Core work (time allocation and activities)
3. Closing (time allocation and activities)
4. Specific prompts for facilitator
5. Methods to maintain engagement

Preparation Enhancement

The difference between a productive meeting and a time sink often lies in what happens before anyone joins the call. Most participants arrive unprepared, forcing the group to waste precious synchronous time on context-setting and basic questions. By crafting targeted pre-work, you transform participants from passive listeners into active contributors. Think of pre-work as the foundation of your meeting – it's not just about reading materials, it's about priming minds for meaningful collaboration.

Example Prompt:

Create a pre-meeting packet including:

1. A two-paragraph context summary
2. Three universal questions all attendees should consider
3. A simple pre-work assignment (15 minutes max)
4. A template for gathering responses

Practical Planning

The most brilliant meeting strategy can crumble under the weight of technical difficulties and logistical hiccups. Yet most people treat these practical concerns as an afterthought, leading to the all-too-familiar "Can everyone see my screen?" delays and "Let me find that document" interruptions. By anticipating and preparing for these practical needs upfront, you create an environment where technology and tools fade into the background, allowing human connection and creativity to take center stage.

For a [virtual/hybrid/in-person] meeting:
1. What essential tools and materials are needed?
2. What backup solutions should be ready?
3. What setup should be done 15 minutes before?
4. What roles need to be assigned?

Pitfall Prevention

Every meeting faces predictable risks – the overeager participant who dominates discussion, the technical hiccup that derails momentum, the unclear decision process that leads to circular conversations. These aren't surprises; they're patterns we can anticipate and prevent. By identifying potential failure points before they occur, you can design safeguards that keep your meeting on track without appearing to micromanage the process. This proactive approach allows you to guide the meeting smoothly while maintaining the natural flow of participant interaction.

For a standard team meeting, identify:
1. Most likely time management risks
2. Most likely participation risks
3. Most likely outcome risks

For each risk:
- Early warning signs
- Prevention strategy
- Real-time mitigation tactic

The great thing about this system is that it makes the results better over time. As you use AI to help implement the 7Ps Framework, you'll generate data about what works. This data helps the AI make better suggestions, which leads to better meetings, which generates better data. Your meeting culture evolves naturally, becoming more effective without feeling forced or artificial.

This is what I call an Organic System— one that creates environments where technology and human interaction enhance each other rather than competing. The goal isn't to have fewer meetings (though that's a nice side effect). The goal is to create spaces where meetings serve their true purpose: bringing people together to create something they couldn't create alone.

Once you start implementing this approach, it spreads beyond meetings. Teams start applying the same principles to other forms of communication. They become more thoughtful about when to collaborate synchronously versus asynchronously. They start seeing this process not as a burden , but as a tool to make their interactions more meaningful.

This is how you scale without sacrificing connection. It's not about adding more tools or eliminating meetings entirely—it's about creating the right conditions for both technology and human connection to thrive.

That's all for this week, see you next time!

Now that you're using the 7Ps Framework to run better meetings, let's make sure nothing falls through the cracks afterward. Those AI transcription tools you're already using (like Read.ai, Otter.ai, or Google Meet's built-in transcription) can do more than just record—they can help drive action. Here's a prompt that transforms your meeting transcripts into a structured action plan:

Example Prompt

Review this meeting transcript and create a structured summary that includes:

1. Key Takeaways (6-7 bullets capturing main points)
2. For each topic discussed, identify:
   - 🛑 Blockers and their proposed solutions
   - ⚡ Key insights shared
   - 🎯 Action items with owners and deadlines
   - 👩‍⚖️ Decisions made and their rationale
   - ℹ️ Important information shared

This prompt transforms meeting transcripts by instructing AI to act as an expert meeting notes transcriber. It focuses the AI on two critical tasks:

1. Extract and synthesize the 6-7 most important points from potentially hours of discussion

2. Organize the detailed content using a structured system of emojis that makes it easy to:

   • Spot roadblocks that need addressing (🛑)

   • Capture unexpected insights worth remembering (⚡)

   • Track who's doing what by when (🎯)

   • Reference why specific choices were made (👩‍⚖️)

   • Find important context and updates (ℹ️)

The result is a scannable, actionable summary that turns raw meeting transcripts into a clear roadmap for follow-up.

This approach closes the loop on our Product and Process principles—turning every meeting into concrete, actionable outcomes that keep your team moving forward. Think of it as your meeting's "digital memory," ensuring that the clarity you created during the meeting translates into real progress afterward.

P.S. Another great follow-up tip is asking the AI after it has produced this transcript to also let you know what should be included in the next agenda based on what was uncovered in the meeting summary.

Personal note: the prompt I use to summarize my own meetings is a little bit more detailed. If you're interested in seeing how I use ACTOR to write that prompt, shoot me an email, and I'll send you the details.