Aaron Huizenga on getting the most out of meetings

May 16, 2026 By Aaron Huizenga 0 Comments

Meetings. We all have them.

Teams, Zoom, in-person, roundups, circle-ups, scheduled and pop-up meetings.

All can be helpful to keep groups of people on the same sheet of music and moving in the correct direction.

Some are information gathering for a leader, and others are information sharing with others.

There is a place and a time for all of them, but when do meetings become what drives your operation? Can you have too many meetings? Do you ever feel like you don’t have time to get the actual work done because you are too busy attending meetings?

Personally, this is not an issue for me, but I have had conversations and situations where the sheer number of meetings begins to take precedence over doing the work that generates revenue and inhibits one’s ability to lead.

For this piece, I would like to share a few thoughts on how to get the most out of having meetings, when to hold them, when to cancel and identifying the goal of getting together.

Every meeting should have an agenda. Either formal or informal, have a plan going into the time slot. Do not start a meeting that you organized with “What do all of you have?”

If there is not any information to collect or disseminate, then does the meeting really need to happen? Even if it is a standing scheduled meeting, if there is nothing to share or collect, then cancel until the following week. Let everyone have that time slot back to work on generating revenue and taking care of customers.

If you have a roundup or follow-up meeting, make them quick. Hit the topics on the list and move on. Don’t add other stuff not related to the original topic.

Each meeting should have actionable items. There should be a takeaway from what is being shared or collected. If you are the information sharer, then your direct reports should have tasks to do or functions to perform from your information. If you are holding an information-collection meeting, then as the organizer, you should have homework based on what is collected. It needs to be actionable. If it isn’t, then the meeting could be an email push with the same content.

If the first four items do not apply, then there is no need for the meeting. Cancel it, reschedule it or start an email or group chat to move information if it is not time sensitive. Allow your direct reports autonomy to carry out their roles without having to stop production to attend a meeting.

As a side note, you as the leader need to be prepared if you are the meeting host. Control the flow, move the group back on topic and ensure that what is being discussed is relevant to the topics outlined. Meeting management is a real thing, and when exercised properly, can produce wonderful outcomes and feelings of accomplishment from the entire group.

Let’s work on your upgrade.

Aaron Huizenga is East Division manager for Lakes Gas in Wisconsin. Reach him at ahuizenga@lakesgas.com.

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