8 Alternatives to Having a Meeting

I love a good meeting, especially if its format is well-tailored to its content and purpose. But, wow, there are way too many meetings! Why is a meeting the default? There are a raft of topics that are better addressed (and progressed) using asynchronous or informal communication methods instead. Here are some of my favorite alternatives to avoid meeting.

Ways to Avoid Having a Meeting

Before you schedule a meeting, consider whether one of these approaches would get you an equivalent outcome without causing as much disruption or requiring the same time investment as pulling people together to meet.

Digest Email

What it is: An email message that follows a standardized template to efficiently share multiple pieces of information needed to keep team members in sync. You might work on a draft of a digest email all week and send it at noon on Friday to wrap up one week and prepare for the next.

What it’s good for: Disseminating project information, coordinating action items, and processing operational issues, allowing one-on-one meetings to focus on more nuanced, contentious, or personal discussions.

What not to do: Don’t use an email digest to pass off an unpopular or controversial message—this is not like hiding vegetables in your kids’ lasagna. Novel, emotional, or contested information deserves a meeting.

Collaborative Document

What it is: A written document, spreadsheet, whiteboard, piece of code, or other work product hosted somewhere that multiple people can read, edit, and comment on—examples: Google Docs, Excel spreadsheets, Notion, or a wiki.

What it’s good for: Iterating on drafts, spotting holes or assumptions, asking clarifying questions, or blending multiple perspectives.

What not to do: Don’t erase or overwrite the owner’s work—suggest don’t change. Don’t spar in the comments; if there’s something worth fighting for, it deserves a discussion.

Project Management Tool

What it is: An application that tracks activities, due dates, assigned resources, completion rates, issues, etc. Examples: Basecamp, Asana, Trello, Click Up, Notion

What it’s good for: A one-stop shop to see where things are with a complex project’s intersecting parts. Replaces the need for the exceptionally boring status update meeting.

What not to do: Don’t upend agreed-upon due dates, responsibilities, or accountabilities without discussing it with people first. Changing expectations deserves a meeting.

Chat Based Collaboration

What is it: A software platform that allows you to send messages and files arranged into conversations or threads.

What it’s good for: Channels make it easy to decide which information you want and don’t want, so you can tune in or tune out information on the topics that are a priority to you. Communicate with internal project teams, across organizational boundaries, and even outside your organization with vendors or customers.

What not to do: In an article by Switchboard, the author cautions, ” Instant messaging tools aren’t suitable for complex discussions or working with visual files and demonstrations. Also, while they’re intended to be async, they can easily turn into a distracting synchronous tool as they create a sense of urgency that leads people to feel like they should respond now.”

Screen Capture Video Message

What it is: A video (with or without screen sharing or other embellishments) that allows you to provide a voice-over to visuals that are shown on your screen. Examples: Loom, Snagit, Droplr.

What it’s good for: Providing instructions for how to use software, sharing feedback on a document or presentation, training or onboarding new team members. Because videos can be paused, sped up, slowed down, and saved for later reference, they’re fantastic for letting people control the pace of their learning. (I often review on 1.5x, which saves time.)

What not to do: Hmm… I can’t think of many misuses of this tool. It’s one of the most underrated and under-used approaches for avoiding meetings.

Office Hours

What it is: A set time when an individual agrees to be available and accessible for communication, collaboration, and consultation.

What it’s good for: Quick check-ins on everything ranging from urgent feedback or approvals to pondering emerging issues.

What not to do: Don’t let one person monopolize office hours, risking creating the perception that some people have greater access than others. Don’t alienate remote employees; if you are a hybrid team, ensure office hours can also be accessed by video.

Communication Burst

What it is: I learned about communication bursts from a research paper about virtual team collaboration. A communication burst is a twist on office hours in which all team members choose a set period of time during which they agree to work independently while being accessible for collaboration if required.

What it’s suitable for: Replacing long, formal team meetings requiring a full complement of team members with ad hoc emails, instant messages, and short phone or video calls among a sub-group. Use it for quick clarifications, responding to or following up on emails, or commenting on shared documents. Communication bursts are beneficial in teams in different time zones. If each group agrees to do a periodic burst outside regular hours, the team can work more efficiently than the regular schedule allows.

What not to do: Don’t waste a communication burst using it for routine information sharing or monitoring. Save it for issues that benefit from synchronous interactions.

Casual Collisions

What it is: Good, old-fashioned, serendipitous, bumping into someone and starting to chat.

What it’s good for: Catching up, informing, musing, connecting, sharing, resting.

What not to do: Don’t initiate an in-depth conversation if your colleague has other priorities to address. Don’t wait near the washrooms or the coffee pot and poach people. Be respectful of people’s time.

Why Avoid Meetings?

While I’m still a fan of meetings, I’m a realist about the downsides. When you call a meeting, you force everyone to stop what they’re doing and focus on the meeting agenda. Interrupting someone who is working in flow is counter-productive. Another problem with meetings is that everyone gets the information at the same rate (and let’s be candid, some people take their sweet time getting to the point). And meetings work for some people and not for others—some people withhold their contributions because they aren’t confident, prepared, or psychologically safe. Sometimes, a meeting isn’t the right answer.

Try adding more asynchronous or informal approaches to your team collaboration and see how much more productive you can be!

Additional Resources

Are You Using the Right Virtual Collaboration Tools?

10 questions to increase collaboration

Want People Back in the Office? Deal with the Meeting and Email Burden

 

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