Meeting Culture Best Practice Guide

MEETING
CULTURE
BEST
PRACTICE
GUIDE
We at enpact are committed to use people’s time efficiently.
That is why we have created this Best Practice Guide for
conducting our meetings. This ensures that everyone feels
happy and satisfied about the value they are bringing to the work
with all of the other enpactors.
Thanks to your candid input, we have derived 8 simple Best

Practices and an 8-item Checklist to help you run more
purposeful and efficient meetings. Under each Best Practice
you will also find detailed guidelines.
It’s in our common interest that every individual one of us

always applies these. And it’s our collective responsibility to
kindly remind each other about them, if need should be. Let’s
be mindful that this is a process. We’re all learning and growing
together to make working with each other a happier experience.
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BEST PRACTICES
1. Have meetings only when they are really necessary.
• Before scheduling a meeting, ask yourself: Does the type of

information you want to communicate require a meeting or is
there a simpler, less time-consuming way to relay the information
(e.g. email for external communication, Asana for task-related
things, Workplace for minor questions or requests, or a phone
call to clarify a situation)?
• Is there another way to achieve your desired outcome?
• Can this issue wait or do I really need to set up a meeting right

away?
2. Before scheduling a meeting, decide on the purpose &

format of it.
• Identify the purpose of your meeting and set an appropriate

format:
• 1:1 Catch-up, Feedback or Clarifying Meeting
• Brainstorm
• Decision-making
• Scrum Meeting (Standup, Review & Planning, Retrospective)
• Project Kickoff (internal/external)
• Debrief/Retrospective (internal or with Donors / Partners)
3
3. An efficient meeting is a meeting well prepared.
• Set an agenda (with the option to invite others to add agenda

points).
• Invite only those who really need to be there. Ask yourself:

How can they bring or gain value by attending this meeting?
• Check the availability of your invitees before you send them a

calendar invitation.
• Include in the calendar invitation the purpose, goal and agenda

of the meeting.
• Share any documents you want to discuss during the meeting

as an attachment to the invitation.
• Share any links to joint working platforms (Miro, Jamboard,

asana boards, etc.)
• Inform attendees if they have to prepare anything before the

meeting.
• Set a realistic time frame and share how much time they
should plan for this.
• Set up a timer bot with the meeting duration.
4
4. Assign specific roles for your meeting attendees, so everyone
knows how to prepare.
• Assign yourself or somebody else as the moderator of the

meeting.
• The moderator keeps an eye on the time and the agenda,

ensures that the conversation stays on topic, intervenes when
monologues take place and thus secures that both the meeting
output is achieved and that next steps are defined.
• The moderator can ask for somebody to support with keeping

an eye on the time.
• Assign a note-taker that documents relevant decisions

made during the meeting and documents next steps as tasks
in asana.
• Assign specific talking points if applicable.
• Let your attendees know before the meeting which role

they will have during the meeting, so they can prepare (on
the meeting invite, asana or shared document for external
meetings).
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5. Use people’s time respectfully by setting appropriate
timing and duration for a meeting.
• Don’t schedule meetings outside of business hours

(9am-6pm), especially for those in other time zones.
• Don’t schedule meetings during people’s time off or

lunch breaks.
• Do not book back-to-back or overlapping meetings.
• To allow others to see your availability, use the respective

function in the google calendar to indicate your working
hours.
• Start meetings on time and finish on time.
• Consider at least 5 minutes at the end of every meeting to

take feedback.
• Set the meeting duration according to the purpose &

format of the meeting. Meetings shouldn’t be longer than
45 minutes. Some meetings might require some more
time, in this case schedule a break after 50 minutes the
latest (especially for online meetings). Here are some time
indications for certain types of meetings:
• 1:1 (max. 15 minutes)
• Brainstorm (max. 45 minutes, but you can split it in

multiple sessions, and after each session you should
allow for a minimum of 10 minutes break).
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• Decision-Making (max. 45 minutes)
• Monthly Review & Planning (max. 2 x 45 minutes, with a

minimum 10 minute break in between)
• Weekly Standup (max. 25 minutes)
• Project Kickoff (max. 45 minutes, but you can split it in

multiple sessions, and after each session you should allow
for a minimum of 10 minutes break).
• Debrief/Retrospective with Donors / Partners

(max. 45 minutes)
6. Give yourself and others the chance to plan for meeting-

free time.
• Set up a meeting-free Friday (this aligns with the weekend

of our colleagues in the Middle East and North Africa).
• Give yourself and others at least 15 minutes break time

between meetings.
• Try scheduling slots for breaks (walks, stretching,

you name it!).
• Have scheduled (do not disturb) time slots for focus work.
• Allow yourself to say NO if a meeting is scheduled outside of

your working hours.
7
7. Collect feedback to know how the meeting went and always
thank participants for their time!
• Set up a quick feedback using the polling function of the web

conferencing tool (google meet/zoom) before the meeting.
• Use the following scale, which you can copy-paste into the
polling function:
[5] The meeting met my expectations, was well prepared, and I

could take value from it.
[4] The meeting was well prepared; it met the meeting

objective but there is room for improvement.
[3] The meeting met its objective but could have been better
prepared.
[2] The meeting was unclear and did not meet its objective.
[1] The meeting was not well prepared, the objective was
unclear, and there was no meeting outcome.
• Collect votes by using the polling function

(you will obtain the results automatically via gmail)
• Thank participants for their time

(thanking is a zero-sum game!)
• Ask how people feel after each meeting. Your goal is to

make people feel like they have used their time wisely and
that they contributed and gained some value from attending
the meeting.
8
8. Clarify with the attendees how you will follow-up
the meeting.
• Clarify next steps: Discuss who’s responsible for which

tasks in which time frame. (transfer tasks to Asana, if that
hasn’t already been done during the meeting, as for example
during Scrum Meetings).
• Clarify if a follow-up meeting is required, if so, briefly

discuss an appropropriate time frame.
• Share the outcome of the meeting with all attendees

(the format of the output will differ depending on the
purpose of the meeting).
9
MEETING CHECKLIST
Have I asked myself if this meeting is really

necessary? Can I achieve my desired meeting
outcome via email, workplace or asana?
Have I defined the objective and desired outcome

of the meeting? Have I decided the format?
Have I set an agenda and shared it beforehand with

any relevant documents?
Have I selected a moderator/timekeeper, note-taker

to document memo/notes?
Have I identified who needs to attend the meeting?

Who can just be informed of its outcomes with an
asana update, for example?
Have I set up a timer bot for the meeting duration?
Have I set up the feedback option on the web

conferencing tool and collect feedback?
Have I clarified the next steps (set as asana tasks)?

Have I sent the meeting outcomes/memo/notes
shortly after (the following day the latest)?
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MEETING

Thanks to your candid input, we have derived 8 simple Best

It’s in our common interest that every individual one of us

1. Have meetings only when they are really necessary.

• Before scheduling a meeting, ask yourself: Does the type of

• Is there another way to achieve your desired outcome?

• Can this issue wait or do I really need to set up a meeting right

2. Before scheduling a meeting, decide on the purpose &

• Identify the purpose of your meeting and set an appropriate

• 1:1 Catch-up, Feedback or Clarifying Meeting

• Scrum Meeting (Standup, Review & Planning, Retrospective)

• Project Kickoff (internal/external)

• Debrief/Retrospective (internal or with Donors / Partners)

• Set an agenda (with the option to invite others to add agenda

• Invite only those who really need to be there. Ask yourself:

• Check the availability of your invitees before you send them a

• Include in the calendar invitation the purpose, goal and agenda

• Share any documents you want to discuss during the meeting

• Share any links to joint working platforms (Miro, Jamboard,

• Inform attendees if they have to prepare anything before the

• Set up a timer bot with the meeting duration.

• Assign yourself or somebody else as the moderator of the

• The moderator keeps an eye on the time and the agenda,

• The moderator can ask for somebody to support with keeping

• Assign a note-taker that documents relevant decisions

• Assign specific talking points if applicable.

• Let your attendees know before the meeting which role

• Don’t schedule meetings outside of business hours

• Don’t schedule meetings during people’s time off or

• Do not book back-to-back or overlapping meetings.

• To allow others to see your availability, use the respective

• Start meetings on time and finish on time.

• Consider at least 5 minutes at the end of every meeting to

• Set the meeting duration according to the purpose &

• 1:1 (max. 15 minutes)

• Brainstorm (max. 45 minutes, but you can split it in

• Monthly Review & Planning (max. 2 x 45 minutes, with a

• Weekly Standup (max. 25 minutes)

• Project Kickoff (max. 45 minutes, but you can split it in

• Debrief/Retrospective with Donors / Partners

6. Give yourself and others the chance to plan for meeting-

• Set up a meeting-free Friday (this aligns with the weekend

• Give yourself and others at least 15 minutes break time

• Try scheduling slots for breaks (walks, stretching,

• Allow yourself to say NO if a meeting is scheduled outside of

• Set up a quick feedback using the polling function of the web

[5] The meeting met my expectations, was well prepared, and I

[4] The meeting was well prepared; it met the meeting

• Collect votes by using the polling function

• Thank participants for their time

• Ask how people feel after each meeting. Your goal is to

• Clarify next steps: Discuss who’s responsible for which

• Clarify if a follow-up meeting is required, if so, briefly

• Share the outcome of the meeting with all attendees

Have I asked myself if this meeting is really

Have I defined the objective and desired outcome

Have I set an agenda and shared it beforehand with

Have I selected a moderator/timekeeper, note-taker

Have I identified who needs to attend the meeting?