Since the publication of the Lean Startup, the idea of a Minimum Viable Product(MVP) has taken a hold of business culture, especially in nascent companies. Feedback loops are an important aspect of the MVP, where the shorter the feedback loops can be made, the more agile a team can be to pivot without the weight of all the unnecessary added features and structures. Applying that idea to meeting can yield similarly agile results.

We should strive to have Minimum Viable Meetings. Meetings are some of the most time-consuming and expensive aspects of modern business, the shorter and more efficient we can make meeting, the faster we’ll be able to complete “feedback loops.” Instead of wasting a lot of time “building up” with our discussions, speculations, and projections, instead focus only on what needs to be accomplished for the next actionable steps to be taken.

It’s a tired, cliched complaint that meetings are too long, too useless, and too annoying. So how can we strip down our meetings to achieve the necessary and leave the superfluous behind?

Ax Agenda Items 

A long and bloated agenda will guarantee that meetings will go on forever, decisions will be lost, and discussions will devolve. Keep your agenda to one page, and try to allocate a certain about of time for each issue. Write down the goal of the meeting, but also the goal of each agenda point. Do you want a decision made, status update, or brainstorming/discussion around each topic? Most importantly, what action steps will be taken based on what was discussed? The agenda should serve as a template to record the action steps assigned for each topic and who is assigned to each task.

Pare Down Participants 

Once you have the agenda set, go over each point and figure out who truly needs to be at the meeting. Additionally, give participants the option to opt out of a meeting if they feel that it is not relevant to them. If you disagree, you can always rope them back in. Reducing the list of participants will save hours of collective time and money. Make a note of who can be sent a summary of the meeting notes instead of having to attend.

Prep the Players 

Send out the agenda to the participants and make sure you note if you need them to prepare a report or status to present at the meeting. This way they will be ready and organized for the meeting. You can even apply the “Twitter” rule and limit them to a certain number of words or minutes to give their update. 140 may be too few, but don’t give too much freedom of space. The less time, the more succinct people will be forced to be.

Additionally, any reports or materials participants will be going over at the meeting should be sent out ahead of time so that no time is spent at meetings having to summarize or go over the material as everyone should already be familiar with the material and able to discuss it knowledgeably and purposefully.

Get to the Goal 

Just like any other kind of work, meetings expand to fill the time allotted to them. All it takes is a few talkative participants to ensure that meetings never end early. Schedule the meeting for exactly how much time you think you’ll need—or make it even shorter. If you have trouble keeping to time, designate a time keeper (could be the same person as your minute’s recorder). This person will call out when you are getting to the end of the time allotted for an agenda item. Keeping time at the forefront of everyone’s mind will help keep people brief and get to their point faster.

A minimum viable meeting is an attainable goal. If you feel like meetings are getting out of hand, try to trim the fat. A lean meeting is one of the best ways to keep time-wasting to a minimum and to get the action steps of a project. Action steps and shared understanding are the true goals of any meeting, so anything that drives you to those goals faster and more efficiently should be employed.