Meeting / Agenda Item Types
Four core meeting types and their optimal time allocations.
Not every agenda item is the same kind of conversation, and treating them as if they were is why so many meetings run long. This framework sorts meeting time into four core types — informing (sharing an update), discussing (opening a topic for input), deciding (reaching a specific choice), and generating (creating new ideas together) — each of which needs a different amount of time and a different way of being run.
Labelling each item on the agenda with its type sets the right expectation: an inform item should be fast and one-directional, a decide item needs a clear owner and a crisp question, and a generate item needs space and permission to be messy. Mixing them up — running a decision like a brainstorm, or a brainstorm like a status update — is the quiet killer of otherwise good meetings.