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In the age of AI, better meetings might be your company’s secret weapon
Yahoo Finance· 2026-02-01 12:00
Core Insights - CEOs are increasingly frustrated with meetings, viewing them as unproductive and detrimental to creativity, leading to significant changes in workplace meeting policies [1][2] Group 1: Company Actions - Shopify has eliminated all recurring meetings with more than two participants to allow employees to focus on other tasks [2] - Block's CEO Jack Dorsey has instituted a company-wide no-meeting day on Tuesdays to prioritize actual work over discussions [2] - Instagram's Adam Mosseri has committed to canceling all recurring meetings every six months, reinstating only those deemed absolutely necessary [2] - Southwest Airlines' CEO Bob Jordan publicly stated that meetings are not work and has blocked out afternoons for personal productivity [2] - JPMorgan Chase's CEO Jamie Dimon has encouraged employees to "kill meetings" in his 2024 shareholder letter [2] Group 2: Research Insights - Rebecca Hinds, an expert on meetings, suggests that organizations could benefit from a complete overhaul of their meeting structures, termed "Armeetingeddon" [3] - Research indicates that individual contributors, managers, and executives spent an average of 3.7, 5.8, and 5.3 hours per week, respectively, in unproductive meetings in 2024, marking increases of 118%, 87%, and 51% since 2019 [4] - Hinds argues that meetings have become a status symbol in workplaces, often misrepresenting productivity rather than facilitating actual progress [5] - Hinds recommends treating meetings as critical organizational products and suggests a "calendar cleanse" as a starting point for improvement [5]