---
title: "Meetings Aren’t For Collecting Status"
id: "4723"
type: "post"
slug: "status-meetings"
published_at: "2015-02-03T15:55:25+00:00"
modified_at: "2022-03-10T00:52:19+00:00"
url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/status-meetings/"
markdown_url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/status-meetings.md"
excerpt: "One of the compliments I received a few weeks ago was an appreciation for my efficient meetings. I was never sure if anyone noticed or cared. In this spirit, when I kicked off my first program meeting with the Red......"
taxonomy_category:
  - "Productivity"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "meetings"
  - "status"
  - "time"
  - "wasting"
---

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# [Meetings Aren’t For Collecting Status](https://johnpoelstra.com/status-meetings/)

One of the [compliments](https://johnpoelstra.com/say-thank-make-personal/)
 I received a few weeks ago was an appreciation for my efficient meetings. I was never sure if anyone noticed or cared. In this spirit, when I kicked off my first program meeting with the Red Hat Ceph team last week this is the essence of how I introduced my style of meetings,

> I move quickly and I don’t mess around. If I move too quickly, slow me down or create a new topic for discussion at the bottom of the shared document. In general, I don’t use meetings to collect status. Meetings are to make decisions, resolve problems, and coordinate next actions. I err on the side of assuming that each person here knows what they are doing and are getting it done. I also assume that if neither of these things is true you’ll contact me privately, get help from somewhere or raise it here. Make sense? Any questions?

There weren’t any questions.

The first meeting finished 15 minutes early so I scheduled the next one for 45 minutes instead of an hour. That might not work, but I’m going to see if it’s possible on a regular basis.

#### John Poelstra

John Poelstra coaches directors in finance and software. Trained through the Co-Active Training Institute, he has coached for more than 10 years, with over 520 clients and 3,150 sessions, including people at well-known Fortune 100 companies. In over 30 years of professional experience, he spent 25 in technology and finance: software testing, project management and team leadership at Red Hat and Dell/EMC, and finance as a bank auditor at Wells Fargo and a CPA at Grant Thornton. He hosts The John Poelstra Show podcast and is based in Portland, Oregon.

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February 3, 2015

[Productivity](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/productivity/)

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, [wasting](https://johnpoelstra.com/tag/wasting/)

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