n o ren
Human Performance & Leadership

Meetings That Multiply Mishaps

Teams with more meetings often make worse decisions.

2026-06-161 min read

In the midst of a critical project, a team at a mid-sized software company found themselves stuck in an endless loop of meetings, each one intended to clarify the next steps, but ultimately leading to more confusion and miscommunication. Discussions repeatedly circled back to the same issues, with no clear resolution in sight. Managers often mistakenly assume that more meetings will lead to better coordination and decision-making, but this approach can actually create a toxic dynamic. Overly frequent meetings can foster an environment where individuals hesitate to make decisions independently, instead deferring to the group and awaiting consensus. This not only slows down the decision-making process but also leads to a diffusion of responsibility, making it difficult to hold anyone accountable for the outcomes. As a result, teams may find themselves perpetually bogged down, unable to move forward effectively. For professionals, recognizing this pattern is crucial to breaking the cycle and restoring productivity to their teams.

Key insights
Meetings can create a false sense of progress, where the act of discussing issues is mistaken for actual progress toward resolving them.
The frequency and length of meetings can be inversely related to the team's overall sense of ownership and accountability for the project's outcomes.
Establishing clear, individual responsibilities and deadlines before meetings can help prevent the diffusion of responsibility and ensure that each team member is working toward a common goal.
Regularly evaluating the effectiveness of meetings and soliciting feedback from team members can help identify areas for improvement and optimize the meeting process.
Why it matters

Failing to address this issue can lead to significant delays and a substantial loss of talent, as high-performing team members become frustrated with the inefficiencies and seek better opportunities.

Moreover, the lack of clear decision-making and accountability can also erode trust among team members, creating a culture of suspicion and mistrust that further hampers collaboration and innovation.

Use this tomorrow
1
This week, take a critical look at your team's meeting schedule and identify which meetings can be consolidated or eliminated to streamline decision-making and reduce unnecessary discussions.
2
Implement a "pre-meeting" checklist to ensure that all necessary information is shared and discussed before convening, thereby making meetings more productive and focused.
Go deeper

The concept of meetings multiplying mishaps is closely related to the idea of "coordination overhead," which refers to the time and energy spent on organizing and managing collaborative work, rather than on the work itself. As teams grow and become more complex, this overhead can increase exponentially, leading to decreased productivity and efficiency. Understanding the sources of coordination overhead can help teams develop strategies to mitigate its effects and improve their overall performance.

From a psychological perspective, the tendency to convene more meetings in response to uncertainty or conflict can be seen as a form of "action bias," where the desire to appear proactive and engaged leads to a proliferation of meetings, even if they are not necessarily productive. Recognizing this bias can help teams take a more thoughtful and intentional approach to collaboration and decision-making.