Sometimes a meeting ends and no one’s quite sure what just happened. The agenda was followed, updates were shared, a few people spoke up, and then it wrapped up. But as people go back to their work, there’s a quiet question hanging in the air: Why couldn't that have been an email?
It’s not always obvious in the moment, but there are signs. When a meeting drifts into a string of status updates, with little discussion or decision-making, that’s often one. When the same points come up again and again without movement, when side conversations carry more weight than the main one, when people stop preparing or stop attending altogether, all signs.
None of this means a meeting is broken, but it may mean the meeting is coming untethered from its original purpose.
Most meetings are created with good intent: coordination, connection or clarity. Over time, though, those needs evolve and unless the meeting evolves too, it can become more habit than help. It’s worth noticing, not to cancel the meeting right away, but to ask: What is this time really for? What would make it matter again?
Meetings don’t need to be perfect, but they do need to feel purposeful. Otherwise, they start to quietly erode the very things they were meant to support.