The next time you’re invited to a Pre Meeting Meeting make sure you openly ask if this is the “Pre Meeting Meeting”.
For some, this will be a negative deterrent to make this meeting the only meeting that needs to happen and the other meeting is not required. At the end of this meeting, there will be cheers that the second meeting is not required and we have “received an hour back” of our time.
The second option, is to ask why both meetings are required to start with? What are we trying to achieve that requires everyone in the room that could not be achieved in some other way, shape or form?
The latter question is the harder to answer but if it becomes the basis for the Pre Meeting Meeting, then perhaps it can reduce these meetings going forward in the future and put the team on the path to getting the most out of their meetings so people can focus on what they need to deliver.
