Five Flaws That Sabotage Meetings—and How to Fix Them
Let’s be honest: most meetings are a mess.
We sit in them, we run them, we dread them. They consume our calendars, drain our focus, and somehow manage to produce … not much.
But here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to be this way.
I recently attended a real-life, high-level, painfully bad staff meeting. I won’t say where it was, but let’s just say it involved a very senior leader and enough slides to choke a horse.
It wasn’t a bad meeting because people were unprofessional. It was bad because of five flaws that sabotage most meetings—the same ones I see over and over again in most organizations.
Let’s break them down—and more importantly, talk about how to fix them.
Flaw #1: The Title Is Not the Topic
Stop calling it a “Staff Meeting” or “Weekly Sync” and pretending that’s a topic.
These are titles, not topics. They’re vague. Generic. And they don’t tell anyone what we’re actually here to talk about.
So why do we keep doing it? Mental autopilot. Most teams don’t intentionally design meetings—they repeat them.
The “Weekly Team Meeting” exists because it always has. The “Monthly QBR” shows up like clockwork. The “All-Hands” is booked a month in advance without anyone asking, “What are we actually gathering people for?”
And once it’s on the calendar, the assumption becomes: We’ll figure out the details later.
Designing a real agenda and committing to a topic takes work. Not a ton of work, but more than just copying last week’s invite and winging it. Naming a topic means making a choice: What matters most right now? And that’s a kind of focus that a lot of people—especially busy leaders—avoid. Why? Because if you pick the topic, you’re accountable for the outcome.
So instead, we hide behind the title. It’s safe. It’s familiar. It’s a meeting-shaped container with no substance.
The Fix: Choose a Real Topic, Make it the Title of the Meeting
“What are we actually here to accomplish?” That’s the question. If you can’t answer that in one sentence, cancel the meeting—or take five minutes and figure it out. Even that simple discipline—naming a specific topic—will change the way your team shows up.
A real topic drives everything else—agenda, participants, prep, and outcomes.
“Weekly team meeting” is a placeholder.
“Discuss roadblocks to onboarding and agree on a 3-step fix” is a topic.
Flaw #2: You Decide the Duration Before the Agenda
The 60-minute meeting is a myth. It’s a default setting.
Most people say, “We’ll meet for an hour,” then figure out what they’ll talk about.
That’s backwards. That’s how meetings drag on, wander off course, or run out of time before anything meaningful happens.
The Fix: Agenda First. Duration Last.
Structure your meeting like a run-of-show. Break the agenda down into topics, people, and time blocks.
If it adds up to 30 minutes? Great. If it only needs 20? Even better. Let the agenda determine the duration—not your Outlook settings.
Flaw #3: No One’s Actually Leading
Here’s a brutal truth: many meetings have no clear leader.
Sure, someone “sets up the Zoom” or books the room. But who’s actually in charge?
- Who’s managing the time?
- Who’s guarding the agenda?
- Who’s making sure we don’t veer off into a 15-minute tangent about email signature formatting?
Too often, no one.
The Fix: Assign a Fearless Facilitator
They don’t have to be the most senior person in the room. But they do need to own the role of keeping the group on topic, on time, and on track.
Their job is to:
- Begin the meeting with intention
- Stick to the agenda
- Keep the group focused
- Manage time
- Guide the conversation to outcomes
That means being willing to say, “Let’s hold that thought,” or “That’s a good point—maybe better for another time.”
And one of their best tools? The parking lot.
How to Use the Parking Lot (Without Offending Anyone)
When someone brings up a good-but-off-topic point, you don’t ignore it. You don’t derail the meeting either. You park it.
Create a visible “parking lot”—a whiteboard, sticky note, or shared doc—and say:
“That’s a really important point. Let’s park it so we can stay on track, and circle back if we have time or follow up afterward.”
It’s polite. It’s clear. It’s effective.
You:
- Respect the contribution
- Keep the meeting on track
- Build a running list of future items
Used well, this technique is a game changer.
Flaw #4: Weak Starts Waste Time
Here’s how most meetings start:
People trickle in. Someone says, “Let’s give it another minute.”
There’s some chatter, a tech hiccup, maybe a slide deck being uploaded. Eventually someone says, “Okay, let’s get started.”
By then, you’ve lost at least five minutes and any sense of momentum. The meeting has already started poorly, and now you’re playing catch-up.
Why This Happens
This happens because no one sent an agenda. Or the agenda was attached—but no one read it. Or the agenda was read—but it was vague and half-baked.
If you can’t take the time to write an agenda, you probably shouldn’t be holding the meeting.
People show up unprepared because they don’t know what they’re preparing for. That’s not a people problem—it’s a leadership problem.
The Fix: Begin with Quiet.
First, send the agenda in advance— 24 hours ahead is ideal. People can show up ready, or at least familiar with what’s ahead.
Then, try this: Begin the meeting with two minutes of quiet. No talking. Just thinking. Let everyone re-read the agenda, collect their thoughts, and get focused.
Yes, it’ll feel strange at first. But try it twice, and your team will be hooked.
We do this at The BRIEF Lab in nearly every meeting. Two minutes of quiet. Agenda in hand. Heads down. Phones away. It’s amazing how much clarity you can generate before anyone says a word.
If you want to change the way your meetings feel, start here. Kill the small talk. Kill the fumble starts. Start strong. Start quiet. Start with a shared agenda.
Watch the BRIEF Meetings Webinar to learn more about running effective meetings that start strong and end early.
Flaw #5: You Don’t End Well
Most meetings end in chaos. The clock hits :59, someone says “real quick,” and suddenly it’s 11:07 and half the room is scrambling to get to their next call. Everyone’s late. Again.
We rarely plan how we’ll end a meeting. We just … run out of time and hope for the best.
The end of a meeting is your last shot to create clarity: What did we decide? What’s next? Who’s doing what?
If you treat the end like a throwaway—or worse, blow through it entirely—you rob the meeting of any real value. You’ve talked. But no one’s walking away knowing what to do.
The Fix: Plan to End Early—and Stick to It
If you want better meetings, design the ending. Literally. Schedule it.
Leave 5-10 minutes at the end for wrap-up, recap, and next steps.
Even better? Commit in advance—as the facilitator or meeting owner—that you will end the meeting early.
And here’s where discipline comes in. When you know you’ve got to wrap up by :50, you behave differently.
You:
- Stay focused on what matters.
- Make your point quickly.
- Don’t let the group spiral into side debates or tangents.
- Politely push things into the “parking lot” if they don’t belong right now.
- Get through the agenda—on time, or even ahead of schedule.
It’s the same as giving a presentation with a hard time limit: You cut the fluff, you get to the point, and you lead with clarity.
The Bottom Line
Better meetings don’t happen by accident. And they don’t happen because you read a blog about how to have better meetings. Better meetings are the result of a decision, made by a leader, to be disciplined and accountable.
You don’t need a massive culture overhaul. You need clarity, structure, and a little courage to lead differently.
Start with a real topic.
Send the agenda.
Start with silence.
Stick to time.
Use the parking lot.
End early.
Small habits. Big impact.
If you do this consistently, people will want to come to your meetings. Because they’ll be clear, focused, and worth the time.
And in today’s world? That’s rare—and powerful.
Want to know more about improving your organization’s meeting culture? Check out our BRIEF Meetings course.
Joseph McCormack first shared these ideas in BRIEF Discovery Session #9: BRIEF Meetings