5 Types of Meetings Everyone Hates

There are five types of meetings everyone hates.

Here's what they are, why people hate them and what you can do to make your meetings more effective.

The authors of Liberating Structures call these "conventional structures".

They're called conventional structures because this is what everyone uses.

People hate these kinds of meetings because they're either too structured (making them inhibiting) or too loose (making them disorganized).

These 5 types of meetings have too much control or too much chaos.

As a result, most of the time, people come out of these meetings frustrated because:

• they could've consumed the information via email or recording
• no outcome is decided
• because they're not effective, they waste time and energy
• they don't make room for ideas to be nurtured

Presentation

Status Report

Managed Discussion

Open Discussion

Brainstorm

What you can do about it...

• determine the reason for the meeting. This sounds obvious, but most meetings happen out of routine rather than intentionality
• facilitate your meeting rather than leading, guiding or directing it
• Explore alternative meeting patterns