Help!
I can’t see the calendar for the meetings.

Her calendar resembles a patchwork of rectangles. My client, a friendly assistant professor, looks tired. Her desk is covered by piles of papers and books. She describes a typical working day to me:

Back-to-back meetings from nine until three. She skips lunch and ignores the call of nature. Between calls, she answers emails. During some meetings she asks herself: “Why am I here?”.

After the last meeting, she writes the day off. She finds herself in a state of brain fog. Her eyes burn. Her neck and shoulders are stiff.
But tomorrow she will “surely” find the time to do what she was actually hired for: Research.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Creativity lives in the body. A stiff, 8-10 hours of screen-time, caffeine-running organism produces very little of it.
What does your calendar look like? What can you do to preserve your precious research time? 

1. A prevalent pattern

Today, executives spend almost 23 hours per week in meetings. This accounts for almost half of their regular working hours. Back in the 1960s, that figure was below ten. According to the study, 72% of meetings are ineffective. Almost eight in ten professionals sit through discussions that produce no actionable outcomes.

Science follows this trend. 

The research-administration-balance tilts heavily towards administrative tasks. Do the maths: how much does a meeting of ten leading scientists cost? Add the time it takes to recover and refocus. 

Research discovered another surprising fact connected to punctuality. A peer-reviewed study by Lehmann-Willenbrock and Allen found that a meeting starting just ten minutes late produces measurably less solution-focused communication for its entire duration such as fewer ideas, less depth, less support between participants.
Ten minutes delay set the scene for the rest of the meeting.
You don’t want to be that boss.

2. Why meetings go wrong: three main patterns

My workshops reveal what surveys confirm again and again. Meetings accumulate. New ones are born to live forever. The people who sit in them rarely ask why.
Over time, I have compiled a list of words that participants associate with meetings.

The list is long and negative:

Boredom. Frustration. Waste of time. Why am I here? Endless monologues. Ego stage. I’m obliged to attend. Endless discussions. Poor moderation. The list goes on.

There are many reasons why meetings can go wrong. I pick out the three most prevalent types. I call them “spineless”, “tradition”, and “none decision” meetings.

Do you recognise one or all?

Spineless meetings

This is the most common type of meeting. No agenda. No minutes. No timer. No one is assigned to steer the conversation back when it drifts. The facilitator just nods along as the discussion spirals out of control. Time runs out. The group leaves without having made a decision, a next step, or a clear sense of what has just happened.

Tradition meetings

Organisational habits persist. Someone initiated a Monday morning call, a weekly lab update, or a monthly consortium check-in. That person left. The project ended. The meeting remains.
As research leaders, you may have inherited meetings in the same way you inherit thirsty plants from your predecessor. Both become part of the interior. And no one asks whether they still bear fruit.

None-decision meetings

Some meetings are frustrating because a decision is overdue. This may be because the leader does not feel comfortable taking the decision, or because no attendee feels authorised to make it. The group convenes again. And again. The decision patiently waits.

Meetings are meant to be useful tools for organizing our work. We need them to be functional and efficient.

Here comes the good news:
Each pattern of failure has an antidote. In the following section I will show you which to use.

3. Three antidotes for inefficient meetings

Each antidote matches a pattern in the previous section. None of them requires a management degree.

Give every meeting a spine: the agenda and four questions.

Having an agenda is the minimum standard.
Ask for it to be sent at least 24 hours in advance. The agenda consists of three to five items. Each item has a time allocation and a clear purpose. Meetings are either for information, discussion, or decision-making. Covering more than one type in a single meeting is a recipe for confusion.

The moderator sets the rules.
This could sound like: this is a discussion meeting on X. For that I need the input from all of you. Therefore, I kindly ask you to mute your mobile devices. You don’t need your laptop either. 

Then the moderator opens the meeting by answering the following four questions:

– Why are we here?
– What is the purpose and what is each person’s role.
– What is the specific outcome this meeting will produce.
– How do we do it?

When all is done, the moderator closes with the decision, the next step, and who owns it.

Questions provide structure. This allows participants to engage rather than just sit in the same room. 

Tradition meetings: have a calendar audit.

When you feel overwhelmed already, a calendar audit seems like an additional burden. That is precisely when you should invest time to get more space in your calendar in the long term.
Set aside thirty minutes.
Open your recurring meetings.
For each one, ask three questions.

1) What is the purpose of this meeting?
2) Who needs to participate to serve the purpose?
3) Does an email, a memo, or a video-message serve the same purpose in a shorter period of time?

I recommend to pay extra attention to inherited meetings as they are often run on autopilot. “It’s always been done like that” is not a valid argument for keeping it!

Plan for the calendar audit once a year. Simply add the point to the agenda at the end of the year and discuss it with your team. If you are unsure whether to skip a type of meeting, do so for a trial period. If nobody misses it, waving good-bye feels like breathing fresh air. 

Antidote to None-decision meetings: decide how to decide.

Let’s assume you want to take a decision.
You invite team members who are affected by this decision to an extraordinary meeting. First, decide how you want to take the decision.
There a 3 options:

• You are the ultimate decision-taker, your team adds their perspective.
• Secondly, you decide collaboratively after a discussion.
• Or thirdly, you ask the team to decide.

Whatever the decision requires, explain the procedure.

As a leader you are in a privileged position. You can delegate tasks to team members. You can assign a moderator and a notetaker, or use AI for transcription. That allows you to concentrate on what is being said.

4. A word to my female readers

In my previous roles I sat in board meetings as one of the few women present. Many of these meetings were poorly facilitated, lasted longer than necessary and were highly inefficient.

My input lived at the bottom of the agenda. By then the air was stale with testosterone. Everyone was hungry and longing for the toilet break.  

As a female leader, learning to assert yourself in a male-dominated ecosystem is a challenge.  My advice: take it as a game. Observe. Learn. Execute.

Here is what I learned:

Beware of the power games.

Sociolinguist Deborah Tannen describes two types of communication:
The asymmetric vertical communication is about power and hierarchy.
The symmetric horizontal communication negotiates for collaboration and connection.
Women tend to underestimate the first and favour the second. 

Imagine a cross-departmental meeting.
Most of the delegates are men. You arrive prepared, ready to present your solution. However, your male colleagues establish their hierarchy before they engage with the topic at hand.
Hold your horses. Let them sort it out first. Then strike.

Watch your language

Language is your sharpest leadership tool. The words you choose clarify your position, claim your airtime, and signal authority. Use language intentionally.
The following three situations illustrate what I mean:

– Your colleague interrupts you.

• Defensive, high pitched: “Let me finish my sentence, please”
• Powerful, calm voice: “I just finish my sentence.“
  

– You break someone else’s never ending monologue. 

• Female trap: you wait politely for the gap.
• Impactful: you pick up a keyword from your colleague and bridge directly to your point.
  

– You weaken your argument by using modal verbs and adverbial modifiers.

• Female trap: “So, I guess, we could perhaps do X.”
• Powerful argument: “I suggest we do X. That brings us Y.”
  

5. What you can do today

Meetings don’t fall from the sky. You introduce some and inherit others. Cut them, when they stop serving the work.

Open next week’s calendar. Look at your recurring meetings. Which of these meetings serve me?

When in doubt ask yourself or your team these questions:

• What is my role is in this meeting? 
• What contribution is expected from me?
• What was most useful for me at the last three meetings?

Bear in mind that a 1-hour-meeting per week amounts to 5-7 working days per year.
Every hour you spend in a meeting that doesn’t serve you is an hour less for research.  

Cancel it. Or redesign it. Either way, take that hour back.

Suffering through is not leadership. Taking control is.

Petra Nieckchen

Sources

• Perlow, L.A., Hadley, C.N. & Eun, E. (2017). Stop the Meeting Madness. Harvard Business Review, July–August 2017.
  https://hbr.org/2017/07/stop-the-meeting-madness
• Atlassian / Loom (2025). The Ultimate Guide on How to Run an Effective Meeting. atlassian.com, 6 August 2025.
  https://www.atlassian.com/blog/loom/how-to-run-an-effective-meeting
• Lehmann-Willenbrock, N. & Allen, J.A. (2017). Well, Now What Do We Do? Wait…: A Group Process Analysis of Meeting Lateness. International Journal of Business Communication, 57(3), 302–326.
  https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488417696725
• Tannen, D. (1990). You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. William Morrow. New York.
• Picture: inspired by Sarah Cooper @thecooperreview.com