# Do we need this meeting? > Purpose, type and roles before you send an invite, an ending with owner, step and date, and the meeting you cancel because a message will do. - Course: [From Specialist to Manager: Your First Year Leading a Team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager.md) - Module: Meetings and communication - Lesson 17/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/do-we-need-this-meeting ## Where we are **Alex Tutor:** May, your fifth month leading Support. The exam peak runs until June, and the team of six works from Kyiv, Lviv and abroad, two of them two hours behind Kyiv. **Alex Tutor:** Your April calendar shows something new: meetings now take more of your week than tickets. Let's check whether each one earns its time. **Sofia:** And Roman from tutor operations wants one more: a weekly half-hour call to share tutor no-show numbers with us. **Alex Tutor:** Then start there. Before any invite, ask one question: what will be different when this meeting ends? A decision, a solved problem, a shared understanding, a stronger relationship. If the answer is "everyone will know the numbers", a message does that. > **Exercise:** Roman wants a weekly 30-minute call to share tutor no-show numbers with Support. What's the best response? ## Four purposes, four formats **Alex Tutor:** Most meetings serve one of four purposes. **Decide**: a small group with the person who owns the decision. **Solve**: two or three people who know the problem, working on it. **Alex Tutor:** **Inform**: usually a written update, with a call only for news that needs a human voice. **Connect**: one-to-ones and a regular team call, where people talk about more than tickets. **Sofia:** And the daily **stand-up**? It's meant to be ten minutes of blockers, but ours runs far longer. **Alex Tutor:** A stand-up is a coordination check: who's stuck, who needs whom today. When it turns into status reading and problem-solving for seven people, it has quietly changed type. We'll audit yours at the end of the month. > **Exercise:** Match each meeting need with the format that fits it best. **Alex Tutor:** You mentioned the stand-up. Is this true of yours? > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a daily stand-up that has grown to include everyone's status and long problem-solving is still a stand-up, just a more thorough one. ## Who needs to be there **Sofia:** Invite everyone who might be interested, though? Nobody likes being left out. **Alex Tutor:** Invite the people the meeting needs: whoever decides, whoever knows, whoever must act. Everyone else gets the written summary within the hour. Being informed isn't the same as being in the room. **Alex Tutor:** Give every meeting three roles: an owner who sets the purpose and keeps time, a note-taker, and, if there's a decision, the person who makes it, named before you start. **Olha:** And for the two working two hours behind Kyiv: a 9:00 meeting is 7:00 for them. If they're not needed, don't make them get up for it. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** to keep everyone engaged, a lead should invite every coordinator who might find a meeting interesting. **Alex Tutor:** Once you know who's in the room, give them roles. Which set works? > **Exercise:** You're setting up a 30-minute call to decide the weekend rota for June. Which roles should be named **before** it starts? ## An agenda of questions **Alex Tutor:** Write the agenda as questions, not topics. "Refunds" invites a tour. "Do we allow refunds for lessons missed during a power outage, yes or no, by Friday?" invites an answer. **Alex Tutor:** Next to each question: who brings it, how many minutes, and any reading to do first. Send it a day ahead, so people across time zones and shifts can comment in writing even if they can't join. **Sofia:** And if the pre-read answers the question? **Alex Tutor:** Then you cancel the meeting and celebrate. A cancelled meeting with the work done is a win. > **Exercise:** Which of these make an agenda item useful? Select all that apply. ## How a meeting ends **Alex Tutor:** The last five minutes matter most. Every agreed step becomes an **action item**: one owner, the concrete next step, a date. "We'll look into it" is not one. **Alex Tutor:** Then the note-taker posts the decisions and action items in the team channel within the hour. Whoever missed the call, or lost power during it, catches up in two minutes. **Iryna:** That's what I want from your meetings too. I don't need minutes. I need: what was decided, who does what, by when. **Sofia:** Owner, step, date. Even when the step is "find out"? **Alex Tutor:** Especially then. "Olha checks with Roman which payment method fails, by Wednesday" is an action item. "Someone looks into refunds" isn't. > **Exercise:** Which line from a meeting summary is a proper action item? **Alex Tutor:** The meeting's over. How do the decisions reach the people who missed it? > **Exercise:** Two coordinators missed Wednesday's team call, one because of a power cut. What's the best way to make sure they know what was decided? ## Your turn: the Friday wrap-up **Alex Tutor:** One meeting is yours to fix: the Friday wrap-up. 45 minutes, all seven of you, at 16:00. Each person reads out their week; nothing is decided. **Sofia:** People like it, though. It's the only time all of us are on one call. **Alex Tutor:** Then that's a real purpose: connection. Keep what serves it, move the reading-out to writing, and decide what the meeting is for. **Olha:** If you shorten it, I'll take the written updates over. I read them anyway. > **Exercise:** The Friday wrap-up takes 45 minutes at 16:00 for all seven of you: each person reads out their week and nothing is decided, but people like it as the only time the whole team is on one call. Redesign it in **3–5 lines**: keep, change or cancel it; its purpose; who attends and for how long; what moves to writing; and how it ends (decisions and action items with owner, step and date). > **Key ideas** > > - Before any invite, ask: what will be different when this meeting ends? Decide, solve, inform or connect. > - Information usually travels better in writing; meet when there is something to decide or solve together. > - Invite whoever decides, knows or must act; everyone else gets a written summary within the hour. Mind time zones: 9:00 in Kyiv is 7:00 for two of the team. > - Three roles: an owner who keeps purpose and time, a note-taker, and the decision maker named in advance. > - Write the agenda as questions with an owner, minutes and a pre-read, sent a day ahead. > - End with **action items**: one owner, the next step, a date. A cancelled meeting with the work done is a win. **Alex Tutor:** Next time: what goes in a channel, what goes in writing, and what you hand to a tool. - Previous lesson: [Case: the "tickets closed" bonus](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/tickets-closed-bonus-case.md) - Next lesson: [Channels and async work](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/channels-and-async.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.