Hey entrepreneur,
I had a friend who complained his calendar was a graveyard of constant team members asking him, "Got a minute?" and nobody could ever make a decision.
I looked at his schedule.
Back-to-back meetings...
All day...
EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
So I asked him:
"What was the last meeting where something actually changed?"
He stared at me and couldn't answer.
So I gave him 4 rules and told him to kill any meeting that didn't pass all four.
Rule 1: No Agenda = No Meeting
If they can't say what we're discussing and why we're there, it ain't happening.
This one rule alone killed half his calendar.
Rule 2: No Outcome = No Meeting
What decision needs to be made?
What's the current status quo that needs to change?
Meetings are for DECISIONS, not discussions.
Rule 3: No Expert = No Meeting
If the person with the authority to decide isn't there, cancel it.
If the person with expertise to deliver context can't attend, cancel it.
Without them, you're just having hypothetical conversations that go nowhere.
Rule 4: No Scorecard = No Meeting
Everyone must agree on the current state using actual data before discussing solutions.
If you can't agree on the problem, you can't align on the solution.
He implemented all four rules. His calendar went from 30 meetings a week to 8.
And for the first time in years, stuff actually got done.
I reconnected with this friend a few months later to find out how things were going.
He said, "I forgot what it felt like to think."
Don't confuse attending meetings with making decisions.
-Ryan
P.S. Next week, I'm hosting a free live workshop where I'll walk through how I redesigned my week so decisions could move forward without me being in every room.
If you want a preview of what that looks like, you can see the details here.
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