Seconding the other comment on not waiting for people. As soon as the clock changes to the start time we are beginning the meeting, and we're not catching anyone up if they're late. They can figure it out.
Obviously this gets a little slack if you're a super senior position (nobody's telling the company President they're not circling back on something already discussed) but for the most part meetings are much more efficient if you're absolutely ruthless with the clock. It's literally the only thing that nobody can control.
On the flipside you have to be equally ruthless about not going over time. At 5 min before the scheduled meeting end time we start cutting off discussions that have become circular and start determining if we need to have a follow-up or clarification meeting for something. My biggest rule for this is that it can't be the exact same group, you'll just end up having the same meeting again. These follow-up meetings are most effective if it's a subset of the original group trying to clarify some specific point.
30 minute meetings can be useful if you stick to these rules.
Obviously this gets a little slack if you're a super senior position (nobody's telling the company President they're not circling back on something already discussed) but for the most part meetings are much more efficient if you're absolutely ruthless with the clock. It's literally the only thing that nobody can control.
On the flipside you have to be equally ruthless about not going over time. At 5 min before the scheduled meeting end time we start cutting off discussions that have become circular and start determining if we need to have a follow-up or clarification meeting for something. My biggest rule for this is that it can't be the exact same group, you'll just end up having the same meeting again. These follow-up meetings are most effective if it's a subset of the original group trying to clarify some specific point.
30 minute meetings can be useful if you stick to these rules.