• Meetings are a test of how vocal someone is. People who are most vocal, not necessarily most knowledgeable, control and ruin the meetings. In other words, meetings don’t give everyone the equal chance to speak.
• Constant interruptions esp. on Zoom. You don’t get to finish.
• No time to think. Again, people who can ramble keep on talking.
• Corporate governance gives a lot of attention to D&I these days. However, how many leaders make sure everyone is given a chance to speak in meetings? Some people are naturally shy to speak yet have good ideas and feedback. Others for which English is not the first language, face a language barrier.
• The usefulness of a meeting is inversely proportional to the number of attendees.
• Hard to understand people over Zoom (voice quality compounded with accents)
• Once you are in the meeting, its hard to leave even though you feel the meeting is wasting your time.
• The list is endless…

The only way to have deep thoughtful and esp. technical conversations is through the written medium. This principle is so obvious, yet so uncommon. The organization that follows this is already half-way ahead of its competition.