27% of the working week. 13.6 meetings on average. £48 billion in the UK alone lost to unproductive time. And the number has nearly doubled in five years. Three annotated reading pieces that go beyond the usual "run better meetings" advice — into why meetings became what they are, what AI can change, and what survives the automation.
All three pieces
A reading list for anyone who thinks they have too many meetings — and anyone who thinks they don't. From Antony Jay's 1976 HBR classic to the latest Speakwise data. Why every experiment in meeting reduction eventually fails.
A practical guide — including the parts that don't work yet. Microsoft Copilot in Teams, Claude Cowork, intelligent recap, pre-meeting briefings, real-time questions. Honest limits included.
Status meetings and briefing meetings will largely disappear. Trust-building, creative, and decision-accountability meetings will remain — and they'll be harder. The design question nobody is asking.
Why this series exists
Most writing about meetings is operational: how to run them better, how to end them on time, how to write good agendas. This series is structural. It asks why meetings became what they are, what the actual cost is, what AI can genuinely change, and — most importantly — what we should be gathering humans for when the coordination work is automated. These pieces were originally published on LinkedIn.