It seems that the one carryover from brick-and-mortar, manual, old school business to the new knowledge-based economy is that upper management likes to have meetings. Meetings are necessary. Meetings suck. Here’s my meeting school:

Meetings are good:

• Task assignments are best identified by the team, rather than just direct orders by a superior.
• Resource allocations are easier with the minds of many.
• Well executed meetings facilitate brainstorms.

Meetings are bad:

• Tyrants use meetings for short-sighted task assignments.
• Long or frequent meetings waste the time of the team.
• Reactionary meetings facilitate blamestorming.

Make your next meeting productive. Set a timer, bring a list of things to talk about, don’t shoot down ideas, and come up with next action lists.