Let’s be honest: most meetings drain energy instead of creating clarity. You’ve lived it. You’re in your groove—focused, productive—until you get yanked into a room where the team circles an issue for an hour, adds commentary, repeats itself, and then schedules another meeting to “really solve it.”
That isn’t collaboration. It’s chaos.
And it’s the norm for most organizations. Calendars fill up. Accountability gets diffused. Issues linger. By the end of the month, entire workweeks disappear into meetings that don’t move the business forward.
The tragedy isn’t that meetings exist. The tragedy is that they’ve stopped doing what they’re supposed to do: help your team make better decisions and gain Traction.
A Horror Story From the Conference Room
One of my clients told me about a meeting that still makes her cringe.
“We had one simple task: decide which offices would provide which documents for an upcoming audit. Easy, right? One hour on the calendar. By the 45-minute mark, the vice president was still lecturing seven seasoned professionals on why the audit mattered. By 1:05, the head of sales was in a full-blown argument with the head of finance. By 1:20, half the room was checking email and texts. At 1:35, we formed a subcommittee and adjourned, having accomplished absolutely nothing except assigning more work to the few of us still trapped there.”
Sound familiar?
Meetings like this aren’t merely inefficient—they erode trust, clarity, and momentum. They create mental clutter. They delay decisions. They drain teams.
Why Bad Meetings Persist
If everyone knows meetings are broken, why do we keep holding them? The reasons vary, but I see the same three themes again and again. Some meetings survive because “we’ve always done it this way.” Some happen because leaders fear that without them, they’ll lose control of the flow of information. And some are simply the product of misplaced optimism and the belief that surely this time, people will come prepared, stay focused, and wrap up on time.
Those beliefs create a culture where bad meetings become inevitable.
But they’re not.
The Hidden Cost of INEFFECTIVE Meetings
A one-hour meeting with ten people isn’t “one hour.” It’s ten hours, and usually ten hours diverted from serving customers, driving priorities, or hitting measurables.
When meetings don’t work:
- Decisions slow down
- Accountability blurs
- Energy drops
- Trust erodes
And leaders fall into the trap Gino Wickman describes in Traction: more discussion, less solving.
Meetings Don’t Have to Be This Way
When meetings are run correctly, they become one of the most powerful tools in your business. They bring clarity, alignment, accountability, and energy. I see this transformation in entrepreneurial companies every day.
The difference comes down to four things: purpose, structure, resolution, and rhythm.
That’s exactly what the EOS provides.
How EOS Fixes Broken Meetings
EOS protects the most valuable resource you have—time.
Every meeting has a clear purpose and a consistent agenda. Every issue gets solved using the Issues Solving Track (IDS)—Identify, Discuss, Solve—the same way, every week. And, this is critical, one person owns the flow. A single meeting facilitator makes sure the team stays on track, moving from one item to the next without circling endlessly around the same debate.
The effect is striking. Teams go from dreading meetings to depending on them, because they know the time will actually matter.
The Rhythm That Makes It Work
In EOS, this rhythm is called The Meeting Pulse.
It ensures the team meets at the right frequency to stay aligned, solve issues, and keep moving forward.
The Meeting Pulse includes:
- Weekly Level 10 Meetings
A 90-minute meeting that keeps the leadership team aligned, accountable, and solving issues at the root. - Quarterly Planning
A reset every 90 days to establish priorities (“Rocks”) and keep the team focused in the 90-Day World. - Annual Planning
Two full days to refresh the Vision, strengthen the team, and set the long-range direction.
This cadence creates consistency, clarity, and momentum. Issues get solved when they’re still small. Priorities stay tight. Accountability becomes part of the culture.
Teams I work with often tell me something I never expected to hear when I started consulting: they actually look forward to certain meetings.
When was the last time someone on your team said that?
The Bottom Line
Meetings don’t have to drain your organization. Done well, they can energize your team, sharpen your focus, and drive real progress.
So before you accept another week of cluttered calendars, ask yourself: Do we really need another meeting… or do we need a better meeting?
Download the Meeting Pulse and the Level 10 Meeting agenda. They will transform the way your team communicates, aligns, and executes.
If you want to take the next step, join the EOS Academy—our free learning platform built to help entrepreneurial leaders get more of what they want from their businesses. It’s loaded with videos, tools, and real-world lessons you can use right away.
And when you’re ready to take it even further, connect with an EOS Implementer who can help you master the tools and gain traction faster.
