Why The Anti-Meeting Culture Hurt Our Business

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We have a question for you… how do you feel about meetings? We’ve all sat in those pointless meetings before, right? The ones that could have been accomplished in a quick email 🥴 Meaningless meetings have led to the anti-meeting culture in corporate and entrepreneurship.

According to a study by Doodle, the average professional spends approximately 23 hours per week in meetings. This translates to nearly 1,200 hours per year—or 50 full days—spent in meetings. That’s more than two months of working hours lost annually due to meetings!

And we wonder why we can’t get anything done 😅

That alone kind of makes you want to say “peace out” to meetings altogether. The “anti-meeting culture” is about getting stuff done. If you’re in fewer meetings, you can be more productive. In theory, it makes sense, right?

So we cut them out… honestly, we have barely any internal meetings since starting Duo. But the anti-meeting culture ended up hurting our business. 

Moving Away From Corporate Culture

When we left our agency jobs, we were so excited not to be tied up in meetings all week. We ditched them almost completely. As our own bosses, we didn’t need to sit in meetings all week if we didn’t want to (and we reallllllllllly didn’t want to.) Abbey had infants at the time and it felt counterproductive to spend precious quiet time in meetings. There were so many reasons not to have meetings, but we ran into a lot of issues.

Issues From Not Having Meetings

When we cut out meetings, here’s what started happening to us…

• Lack of communication
• Unclear on the bigger picture of the business
• No set goals and not tracking towards anything
• Lost in the day-to-day, week-to-week
• Felt disconnected and unhappy (a lot due to that lack of communication) 

A lot of the problems we were having from a business partnership perspective were because we weren’t talking. We weren’t having meetings to discuss strategy, processes, and goals. 

Scheduling Meetings Again

As we’ve grown Duo, we’ve worked through growing pains, and meetings are one we just recently discovered. So we are adding regular meetings back into our schedule and with a lot more clarity. These are some ways we make sure meetings aren’t a waste of time.

Block Time

We block time for regular meetings. It’s on our calendar on the same day at the same time at a cadence that felt comfortable for us. 

We need to be smart about the types of meetings we are having and the purpose for having them. Whether it’s strategic planning, brainstorming, co-working, or something else, we know how often, and especially when we are having them so it doesn’t mess with our workflows. This is taking some trial and error to figure out what works best for us.

Meeting Owner

The meeting owner creates the meeting, cancels if it’s not needed, prepares an agenda, etc. They are in charge of the direction of the meeting and how productive it is.

Agenda

Always have an agenda! It keeps us focused and on-task so we get everything accomplished that we need to get done during the meeting. 

Work Before the Meeting

All the work that needs to be completed is done in advance of the meeting. That way, nothing is delayed because something didn’t get done on time. We’re both prepared for the agenda.

Hold Each Other Accountable

Meetings still aren’t our favorite thing, but they’re necessary to the success of our business. We don’t cancel meetings without a valid reason. We understand our roles and responsibilities and how it impacts the other person if we don’t get something done. We aren’t afraid to call each other out (nicely!) if one of us is slacking.

Re-Evaluate Each Quarter

Each quarter, we evaluate how well our meeting processes are doing. If there are meetings we frequently cancel because they aren’t needed, we consider removing them completely. If we always run over time for a regular meeting, we’ll extend it moving forward. As a business owner, you have control over how you run things!

We still need to be aware of the anti-meeting culture and not schedule pointless meetings, but cutting them out completely isn’t the answer. Find a business bestie, business partner, or someone else who needs some accountability in their business and sync up once a month or once a quarter to check in. We all know entrepreneurship can be lonely; having someone to talk to and brainstorm with can be so helpful for the growth of your business. This is just one of the many evolutions Duo Collective has gone through and will go through as we continue to grow!

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Abbey Oslin and Courtney Petersen are Minnesota-based marketing experts, educators, and co-founders of boutique marketing agency Duo Collective, which specializes in SEO, social media strategy, and branding for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs. To learn more about Duo Collective, or to inquire about working with our team, head over to www.duocollective.com. 

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