Unveiling the Keys to Productive Meetings: Mastering the Top 3 Secret Elements

15 min readNov 29, 2023

In the last few days, you have contacted me for additional information that you can share with your team to better help them in having more productive meetings and ensuring your organization as a whole understands when those meetings can be replaced by asynchronous ones or simply by email/slack.

So, the goal of this post is to share with you a simple and easy-to-implement framework to:

Turn all your meetings into productive and powerful ways to make progress.
Identify those meetings that could be an email or an async meeting.
I will discuss a bit about “Why” the typical tips you will find online about how to make your meetings more productive won’t work — Add an agenda to your invite, send a link to pre-reading, prepare a visual presentation…

I personally believe that change starts in leadership, so leaders in the organization should be the first ones to lead by example. That doesn’t mean that all leaders need to change from day one; your department can be the first one, and you can be the first one to lead by example. Trust me when I say that you may face a bit of resistance at first from a few people, but many will appreciate your leadership.

If you are not a leader, you can also lead your meetings following these tips, and it will immediately help you in your career growth. As meetings and collaboration overall are becoming more and more important to organizations, those who know how to effectively lead meetings will have ADDITIONAL career growth opportunities. Also, those meetings are often the window for people to understand how we work. So, I invite you to lead by example too, no matter your position because it will positively affect how people perceive you and how they work with you.

Of course, this is just a suggestion, so feel free to take those tips and the information that resonates with you now.

Let’s continue…

In any case, I wanted to share, as always, something more than just advice. My goal is always to share actionable things that you can implement and use. I usually provide screenshots of how I do it in Nova. Nova is the tool I use as the CEO of Nova, but you can use whatever solution works for you.

Turn all your meetings into productive and powerful ways to make progress.

Discover the OFQ Meetings Framework.

Meetings are a fantastic way to bring people together to make progress and really leverage your collective knowledge. However, as we know, this is not always true, and we often sit in meetings where decisions are not made, knowledge is not shared, and we end up wondering if that meeting could have been an email.

Without getting into details, here [Meetings are a bit like a thermometer] you can learn more about how meetings are like a thermometer and help you understand the overall health of your team and organization.

But what can you do today and share with your team or manager that could help you have a simple framework that will make your meetings more productive?

At Nova, we call it OFQ Meetings.

O stands for objective, F for feelings, and Q for questions.

(O)bjective

(F)eelings

(Q)uestions

It means that the person facilitating the meeting needs to always do the following:

(O)bjective: Always define the objective of the meeting. Is the objective to get something approved? Is the objective better to understand a project or challenge based on everyone’s knowledge to ultimately avoid risks? Is the objective to share some initial ideas, or are you just meeting to share a project update? In here, you also need to specify what you expect from people. Why are they there?

The meeting’s objective typically looks like this:

“The objective of this meeting or session is to:___________”

review this design/initiative/concept
discuss this proposal/idea/concept
brainstorm about [what] and create a backlog of ideas for [what purpose]
share an update with you on [what] to achieve [what purpose]
review the finalized version of [what] and get this approved by [whom?]

— or — “At the end of the meeting we will have/know/do ___________.”

(F)eelings: Read the room! How are people feeling about what you are sharing? Do they seem excited? The more we know about how people feel about things, the better we will understand why they will react, say, or act in a certain way when you ask questions.
(Q)uestions: Always go to your meetings prepared. Bring at least 3 questions that will help you achieve the objective of the meeting.

Those are the 3 things that if you implement them in all your meetings, you will instantly start seeing change.

If you want to get even better, add a 4th one and ask people to provide feedback so that you can (I)mprove. Ask something like “from one to 5, how productive was this meeting?”

So remember: All meetings should include the (O)bjective, evaluate how people (F)eel about the topic, and the facilitator should always bring (Q)uestions to the meeting.

OFQ Meetings!

One of the things I hear often is that people tend to think that others don’t come well-prepared to meetings. If you dig a bit deeper, you will see that there is a “silent consensus” that if people read your documents or proposals before your meeting, then you should be good. Secondly…If you are leading the meeting and you have prepared a PowerPoint presentation and shared documents before the meeting — then you are 👍 good.

If those 2 things happen…

You probably think you are done and ready.

While sharing pre-readings and preparing a good PowerPoint presentation is great (nothing bad about it), these are not actually the things that make a meeting beautifully work and be productive. Definitely doesn’t help keep people engaged during the meeting.

What often happens is that the leader of the meeting goes to the meeting, shares a bunch of information, and drops it in the meeting, hoping that people in the meeting will take it, know what is needed from them, and are as excited as you about it. However, they are thinking about their own tasks, don’t know why they are there, and often don’t even know what the objective is, leading to poor engagement (awkward silences) and unproductive meetings that are far from helping to make progress.

— Would you agree with this?

So, whatever you prepare for your meetings, make sure the priority is not about a “pretty” presentation and a link with pre-readings on your meeting invite. Instead, define the (O)bjective, evaluate how people (F)eel about the topic, and always bring (Q)uestions to the meeting.

If you don’t know what questions you should be asking, I have so many resources for you.

At Nova, you have a free card deck with questions.

Card deck — Nova

You also have a few blog posts [ Ask These Questions During Meetings — The Art of a Productive Meeting ] with a list of questions, organized by objective, and I am sharing a few with you here — right now :)

The art of asking powerful questions:

Ideation Evaluation: At this early stage where new ideas are welcome, consider the following questions:

On a scale of one to ten, with ten indicating a great idea aligning with our current goals and constraints, how would you rate this idea?
Keeping our constraints and requirements in mind [a], [b], and [c], what would you add or remove from this initial idea?
When looking at this [idea/proposal], what’s the first thing that comes to mind? What do you wonder about? What have you heard others are doing that could inspire our team? Finish this sentence: “What if…” (Optional)
Overall, how do you think we should proceed with this [idea/proposal]?
What should we add or improve? Do you have any additional ideas or recommendations? Please add one idea per sticky note.
How much does this idea/proposal contribute to our goal?

Evaluation Session: For meetings aiming to evaluate a proposal, idea, concept, or strategy to mitigate risks, consider questions such as:

Are there any risks or considerations? Are there specific limitations or constraints to keep in mind during the review?
Is there anything that could be changed or removed to reduce costs or simplify the implementation and distribution phases? e) How confident are you that this will work?
How difficult is this to implement? What is the effort, and what is the expected benefit?
Are there any unspoken fears, concerns, or worries that, if left unaddressed, could become significant issues later on?
How would you define success? Since the definition of success may vary, sharing your perspective or using emojis to react to others’ definitions can help us arrive at a comprehensive definition that aligns with everyone’s needs and expectations.
What additional information or data do we need before making a decision?
Are there any dissenting opinions we should explore further?

Sharing an Update: For update-sharing meetings, consider asking:

Does this update alter any previous plans or timelines? (yes, no)
How do you feel about this update?
Have we addressed and mitigated the risks and issues mentioned in the previous meeting? (Mention them)
Do you have any additional ideas or requirements that could improve our efforts further?

The goal with these questions should not be that people do your “job” and make a decision for you (with exceptions, of course!). The goal is often to take advantage of collective knowledge, discuss issues or potential alternatives, and make a decision keeping everyone’s knowledge in mind so you can make better decisions. It’s also about making progress, getting everyone’s buy-in, and keeping them informed during the process.

…. Just a side note: I am mentioning this because I often see junior people in my team or new hires follow this framework and then wait for me or someone else in the leadership team to tell them exactly what’s next. In my organization, at least, I want people to lead meetings, digest the input and information shared during the meeting, and be able to make a decision, at least in the small things (if they are new or junior). What I personally don’t want is for them to think about meetings as a way to share with me what they have done, but all decisions (even the smallest ones) need to be made by me. I avoid dependencies as much as possible. We all know that decisions are not just about saying “yes” or “no” or “this” or “that”; it’s about actually spending the time digesting the information, understanding the pros and cons, forecasting the future, and then making the decision. The decision itself is hidden in the “work”. So I personally guide the team, but the person that works on it needs to train/build their #criticalthinking and mental models based on your organization’s culture to make the decision and digest the information from the meeting.

In the end, questions are the key here!

It’s important that if you are leading a meeting, you are the one summarizing what you hear, and you are the one framing it in your words and asking people if they see it the same way, if there are any objections, or things that were not mentioned that could change that, or if there are any use cases that have not been discussed.

All of this applies to all types of meetings, whether you are meeting live (traditional meetings where everyone meets at the same time) or asynchronously (where people meet at different times but still have to participate within a timeframe).

If you want to see a few examples of the OFQ meeting framework, we have free ones at Nova, and you can edit the questions, but it gives you a good start so you can prepare your meeting (async or live) in seconds.

Idea discussion/evaluation — OFQ Meetings from Nova

I am sharing this so you can visualize how to define the objective, measure how people are feeling, and ask questions. I think these Nova sessions can help you visualize what you will do in a live meeting or during the async meetings.

If you are already using Nova and you haven’t tried, please let me know how you like it when you do. As you probably know, these sessions can be used for traditional meetings or asynchronous meetings. If you are in a live meeting, you can have the questions on the screen (probably, you don’t have to add any text or additional context if you are already explaining it during the meeting), and people can leave their notes there. It’s a way to give space to everyone to answer and create a space that adapts to those who are shy as well. In general, it is helpful because often there is not enough time in a meeting for everyone to share their perspective and be heard. If you are using this asynchronously, then I always recommend adding a due date to the session so people get back to you on time, and the platform helps manage them and hold them accountable.

But let’s go back to this blog post!

Identify those meetings that could be an email or an async meeting.

“That meetings should have been an email.”

We all have heard people saying that.

We have all said it at least once.

We know that we are not always good at identifying when a meeting is the best option. In here, I feel like I still need to think about a good way to help you identify this, but for now, I will share some of the things that may help.

Just keep an eye on future posts because I feel like I can give something easier to digest.

What meetings should remain as traditional — live meetings?

Anything that helps you connect with people and that is one of the key objectives of the meeting. Meetings for team building, 1 on 1s, and even check-ins where you just want to see that person’s face and get a sense of how they are doing.
Also, anything that is often a 2-person conversation, where you are trying to troubleshoot something or come up with a solution or a decision on the spot because there is a sense of urgency.
To add to this, you can have some recurring meetings that happen every few months to connect with different departments, chat about progress, improvements, “dream together” or discuss what’s next. Finally, anything where you meet to actually get work done together.
Also known as a workshop.

Outside of that, things can vary.

Quick questions, standup meetings and quick check-ins can be done through Slack or email, and then everything else (or almost everything) can be done during a meeting but can also be substituted by an async meeting.

Here are a few examples:

Check-in meetings: Instead of scheduling meetings to check progress on your calendar, utilize collaboration and task management platforms to track progress. Encourage the team to share progress updates asynchronously. You can automate this through Slack or use Nova’s session feature to request team members’ status updates. As you and your team become familiar with these tools, you can gradually transition more meetings to asynchronous formats. The timeline for full transition will depend on your team’s adaptation.
Informative meetings: These meetings typically involve one person speaking and aim to inform the team or client about updates, changes, progress, new processes, and similar topics. They are not very collaborative, and the meeting’s leader mainly seeks to ensure everyone is informed, occasionally allowing participants to ask questions. Such meetings can easily be moved to asynchronous formats. Utilize tools like Loom (paid) or Quickshare (free) to screen share your updates and embed the screen share on Nova. This allows you to keep track of who has viewed the update and gives participants the opportunity to ask questions.
Feedback and review meetings: These meetings involve sharing a proposal, idea, project, strategy, etc., and collecting feedback, requirements, or reviewing it with the team, clients, or other stakeholders. In essence, the goal is to obtain feedback in terms of questions like “Is this good?” “Should we make changes?” “Are we missing something?” “Is this ready for the next phase?” “Do you prefer option A or option B?” These types of meetings should often be moved to asynchronous formats because participants frequently come unprepared and lack the time to digest the information, resulting in poorly made decisions or the need for additional meetings to delve into details. By conducting such meetings asynchronously, you can screen share your proposal, design, strategy, initiative, etc., and ask questions to gather feedback and insights, enabling you to proceed efficiently within a specified timeframe. Nova is an ideal platform for asynchronous meetings like this, as it allows you to set due dates, hold participants accountable, ask questions, and maintain a collaborative environment while being user-friendly.
Similarly, approval meetings can be easily conducted asynchronously, functioning much like feedback meetings.
Lastly, team retrospectives are another means to reduce the number of meetings you have. As mentioned earlier, the number and types of meetings your team holds provide insights into your team’s health. If you find yourself scheduling numerous check-in meetings each week, there may be issues related to trust, poor systems or processes, or other factors at play.

Now, for any new change to be implemented in an organization as a whole you often need to think about what belief systems people at your organization have. You also need to evaluate how adaptable they are and specially how important it is for them. All changes depend in someway in the culture of that organization and the team norms that are follow.

So if you are thinking about implementing this at your organization, you may need to review some of your current team norms and add a few ones or remove a few old ones. Here is an example of the team norms I often share with teams.

Team norms for meetings.

Team norms are rules that help our team act and provide a framework that is fair for everyone and help us have a better understanding of what is expected from everyone while working here. Team norms must be follow by everyone without exception, including mangers.

Only invite people to meetings who are absolutely necessary — or let them know. (David (Must join) Janet(Optional))
All meetings (async or live) should include an agenda. The agenda should define the (O)bjective of the meeting and why you need people’s input.
During meetings (async or live) the team member or team members leading the meeting should measure how people feel about the topic, proposal, idea etc in a more holistic way. Asking questions like “ From one to five how do you feel about this proposal?” “ Based on what you know now, do you feel we are moving in the right direction? From one to five, five = we are moving in the right direction and you are satified”
The team member or team members leading a meeting need to always prepare at least 3 (Q)uestions they will ask during the meeting to ensure they achieve the obejctive of the meeting. “Any comments or questions? or similar questions don’t count as questions.
All meetings should follow the OFQ Meeting framework: define the (O)bjective, evaluate how people (F)eel about the topic, and always bring (Q)uestions to the meeting.

Those will be my basic ones.

You can add to it.

Ideally you dont have too many or add 20 in one day. Ideally people can easily remember the rules.

But here are a few more:

All approval meetings must be conducted asynchronously to maintain records of the decisions made during those meetings.
We conduct 50% of team retrospectives asynchronously, while the remaining 50% are held as live meetings to allow team members time to connect and discuss any changes or improvements made since the previous meeting.
30% of what you think should be a meetings should me move to an async format.
Once a week ask the following question during a meeting “ Please help me keep improving — from one to five how productive was this meeting?”

Also feel free to check this post: What to Do and What Not to Do During Meetings and this one Ask These Questions During Meetings — The Art of a Productive Meeting

What other options will you add here?

I have a few more in other posts, but I would love to hear what you think and what is working for you.

Conclusion.

To summarize this, there is a very simple framework that anyone can follow to make your meetings more productive. You only have to remember this: OFQ Meeting framework — define the (O)bjective, evaluate how people (F)eel about the topic, and always bring (Q)uestions to the meeting (at least 3).

(O)bjective

(F)eelings

(Q)uestions

Then look at your calendar, and think about which meetings you can move to asynchronous or just send an email. I challenge you to make 30% of the meetings you have asynchronous ones.

And lastly but not less important, remember to lead by example.

Everyone is feeling exhausted and burnt out with meetings. If you are the one bringing a few solutions or ideas to the table and showing the team how to get it done, they will appreciate it, but know that as humans, we are not that great at “accepting” change, so expect some complaints at first, but soon enough, we will all be grateful.