If you've ever left a meeting wondering "what was the point of that?" or found yourself having the same discussion for the third time, you're not alone. Most meetings fail — and it's not because people are lazy or disorganized.
Meetings fail because they lack structure. Specifically, they lack the one thing that makes anything work: accountability.
Here's the insight that changed how I run meetings: One simple rule that makes everything clear.
Let me show you how to transform your meetings from time-wasters into actual progress.
Here's the rule:
If a meeting creates actions, each action must have:
- An owner (who will do it)
- A timeline (when it will be done)
- A follow-up (how we'll check it's done)
That's it. Simple, right?
But here's what this prevents:
When someone says "we should improve the documentation" in a meeting, that's not an action — it's a wish. It has no owner, no deadline, no way to verify it happened. It'll never get done.
An action looks like this:
| Element | Example |
|---|---|
| What | Update the customer onboarding guide |
| Who | Sarah |
| When | By Friday EOD |
| Check | Review in Monday's team meeting |
Without all four elements, you don't have commitment — you have conversation.
Ever notice how some meetings feel like you're having the same conversation over and over?
That's because nothing from the previous meeting carried forward. No one tracked what was supposed to happen. No one checked if it did.
Bad recurring meeting:
Good recurring meeting:
The difference? You're building on previous work instead of starting from scratch every time.
Here are the common ways meetings fail — and how this simple structure prevents them:
| What Always Goes Wrong | What Prevents It |
|---|---|
| "I thought someone else was doing that" | Explicit owner — one person is responsible |
| "I didn't know the deadline" | Defined timeline — everyone knows when |
| "I assumed we dropped that" | Follow-up check — we verify completion |
| "I forgot what I was supposed to do" | Written down — not in someone's memory |
| Same discussion every meeting | Progress check — we see what actually happened |
| Everyone's responsible = no one's responsible | Single owner — one name per action |
This isn't complicated. It's just:
That's what makes meetings actually work.
The difference between meetings that work and meetings that waste time comes down to how you capture actions.
Here's what it looks like before and after:
Before (vague):
Meeting Notes:
- We should improve customer communication
- The onboarding process needs work
- Let's think about the Q2 strategy
After (clear):
Actions from Meeting:
1. Create customer email templates for common questions
Owner: Jamie
Deadline: End of week (Jan 27)
Check: Show drafts in next team meeting
2. Map out current onboarding steps and identify bottlenecks
Owner: Alex
Deadline: Wednesday (Jan 24)
Check: Share findings in team Slack
3. Draft Q2 objectives with 3 key priorities
Owner: Morgan
Deadline: Friday (Jan 26)
Check: Ready for review in Monday's leadership sync
See the difference? The second format makes progress inevitable and observable.
Once you see this pattern, you'll notice it everywhere things actually get done:
The pattern is always the same: Someone owns it. By when. Check it happened.
That's not bureaucracy. That's just how things get done.
Start every meeting agenda with:
# Meeting: [Name] - [Date]
## Previous Actions Review
- [ ] Action 1 (Owner: X, Due: Y) - Status?
- [ ] Action 2 (Owner: Z, Due: W) - Status?
## Agenda
- Topic 1
- Topic 2
## New Actions
(Capture during meeting)
- [ ] Action description | Owner: | Deadline: | Check:
During the meeting, whenever someone says "we should..." or "someone needs to...", immediately convert it:
Trigger phrases:
Response:
At the start of every recurring meeting:
This creates accountability and makes progress visible.
Here's what you're really getting when you run meetings this way:
Clarity becomes automatic.
When every action has an owner, a timeline, and a check point, you eliminate:
This is what people mean when they say someone "runs a tight ship" — but what you're actually doing is just being clear about who does what by when.
That's it. Simple, but powerful.
Structure isn't the enemy of getting things done — it's what makes things actually get done.
The question isn't "is this rigid?" The question is "does it work?"
And this works.
True. Quick syncs and brainstorms don't need this level of structure.
But any meeting that:
...absolutely does.
Capturing actions properly adds 2-3 minutes to a meeting.
Having the same meeting again next week because nothing got done wastes 30-60 minutes.
Which sounds better?
This pattern is critical when:
In other words: most modern work.
Making meetings work isn't about being organized or following process. It's about one simple rule:
Every action must have an owner, a timeline, and a follow-up.
That's it.
This single pattern prevents:
It works because it's simple and clear:
No ambiguity. No confusion. No wasted time.
The meetings that work — in any field, in any industry — all follow this pattern. Not because it's sophisticated, but because it's effective.
Try it in your next recurring meeting. I promise you'll see the difference.
© 2025 Scott Galloway — Unlicense — All content and source code on this site is free to use, copy, modify, and sell.