Types of Meetings

Knowing the type of meeting is the first step to being productive.

Why do we meet?

In this digital world sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking we can just make decisions and design things remotely via slack. But there is something lost in a text only communication that exists when you have a conversation. There are nuances in meaning that come out. There are ideas that flow. A meeting is really just a conversation. It can be an organized conversation or it can be meandering. It can be pointless or have a strong purpose. We want to meet. Even if we claim we don’t want to meet, we end up meeting. We can meet on the phone or on zoom. There is something magical about meetings and something soul killing.  We meet because we care about the work we do and we want to get it right. We want our colleagues to contribute to our ideas so they work better. We want our executives to accept our proposals so we meet with them instead of just emailing them a slide presentation. We want to teach our coworkers about the nifty new technique we developed so we have a lunch and learn. We want to get to know our new accountant, so we take her out to lunch.

Meetings are where things happen.

But selecting the wrong type for the situation can be a disaster. How many times have you seen engineers try to solve a problem inside a staff meeting or daily stand up? It’s the wrong time for that type event. Selecting the wrong type of meeting will waste your attendees time and make it less likely they will show up to your next meeting. It might even be a career ending move.

Don’t select the wrong type of meeting

In order to select the right type of meeting, you should be aware of all that types of meetings. After you are familiar with them all, then you can start planning that critical meeting you have.

This post describes the meeting types. If you think of more, put them into the comments.
Meeting Types

1. Training meeting 

   1. A meeting where one or more trainers trains students

2. Status/Staff/Progress

   1. This meeting purpose is to get updates from a small team and to make any decisions that are currently needed.

3. Idea Sharing/ conference/summit

   1. This meeting’s purpose is to allow experts from different areas present their work in order to move the field forward.

4. Innovation/Brainstorming session

   1. This meeting’s purpose is to bring experts together to hypothesis solutions to a problem or problems to solve.

5. Specific problem solving session 

   1. This meeting’s purpose is to focus on one problem and find a solution.

6. Decision making meeting

   1. This meeting’s purpose to review pros and cons of several options and me a final decision

7. Team building

   1. This meeting’s purpose is to help the team work together more effectively

8. Project kick off

   1. This meeting’s purpose is to get project stakeholders on the same page about the project, get to know each other and each other’s role, decide how to work together, understand timelines/milestones, etc

9. 1:1 

   1. This meeting’s purpose is for two individuals to synch up on topics and make any decisions.

10. Rehearsal/practice

    1. This meeting’s purpose is to get presenters ready for another event

11. Lecture/Keynote/Showcase/Performance

    1. This meeting’s purpose is for one main presenter to present to a larger audience

12. Townhall/All Hands/Ask me Anything/Leadership update-

    1. This meeting’s purpose is for a larger team to work together more effectively and feel like the understand their purpose. They should live motivated to keep working.

13. Panel discussion 

    1. This meeting’s purpose it to showcase several experts on a topic to inform/motivate the audience towards some purpose.

14. Co-creative

    1. This meeting’s purpose is that the members work separately but in the same space possibly for easy ability to ask questions or get feedback on work they're doing.

15. Workshop

    1. A series of activities that lead a participant to a specific purpose.

16. Sales

    1. This meeting’s purpose is for communication between a customer and a sales team/person in order to move close to an agreement between the organizations.

17. Trial

    1. A very structured meeting with a jury who listened to evidence to make a decision

In the next post we will look at Roles that every meeting should have to be successful.