Published: 9/22/2025

Let’s be real: I’ve avoided corporate meetings most of my life. I’ve never lived in the land of calendar invites that could’ve been an email. But I have spent hundreds of hours in gatherings where timing, structure, and energy make all the difference — Toastmasters meetings, university classes, and even poetry shows and concerts.

Those spaces work for the exact same reasons a good business meeting should. Clear purpose. Defined roles. Tight timing. A little energy in the room. When you get those right, you leave feeling accomplished, focused, and motivated.

What Makes Meetings Actually Work

Clear Purpose: In Toastmasters, every meeting has a printed agenda with goals baked in: who’s speaking, what skills they’re practicing, and what the audience should watch for. My university classes are the same — we start with a clear learning objective, then unpack it with practice and activities. If you can’t articulate in one sentence what a meeting is supposed to do, don’t hold it. Jeff Bezos says the same thing in corporate: if there’s no decision to be made, cancel the meeting.

Get the Right People in the Room: Think of a show — there’s the MC, the lineup of performers, and the crew running lights and sound. Everyone there has a role. Nobody’s just sitting in the back wondering why they showed up. Apply that to meetings and invite contributors, not spectators. Smaller groups with active roles move faster and engage better.

Structured Flexibility: Toastmasters is built on this: a strict framework (agenda, roles, time limits) mixed with space for unexpected insights (impromptu Table Topics, audience feedback). My classes run the same way — a lesson plan to guide us, with room for questions and improvisation. Your meetings need both: enough structure to stay on track, enough flexibility to spark creativity.

Actionable Takeaways for Real Results: In every context — class, show, meeting — if people leave with no clear next step, the time gets wasted. Toastmasters ends with evaluations and next meeting roles. Classes end with homework or projects. And shows end with shared photos and videos, plus a call to action for the next performance date. A meeting should end the same way: “Here’s who’s doing what, when, and where.”

Pitfalls That Kill Meeting Energy

The Wandering Conversation: Open mic without a schedule? Total chaos. The same happens in meetings with no agenda — random tangents, lost focus, and no clear outcome.

Running Over Time: Toastmasters has timers. Shows have setlists. Classes have start and end times. If you don’t know when the meeting is definitely going to end, you risk burning trust and energy by going too long.

The One-Person Show: An MC who hogs the mic kills the vibe. In a meeting, a facilitator who dominates leaves everyone else zoning out. Instead, share the floor.

No Follow-Through: Great ideas vanish if no one owns them. At Toastmasters, evaluators follow up. In classes, assignments get checked. Post show, videos are shared and promoted. Everyone should know what their next step is and when to take it. 

Meeting for Meeting’s Sake: No lineup? No lesson plan? No agenda? Then why gather? A recurring weekly meeting with no purpose is just dead weight.

Your Step-by-Step Framework for Meeting Success

Before: Set Yourself Up to Win

• Decide if it’s necessary: Could this be an email or shared doc? If yes, don’t waste the room’s time.
• Send a sharp agenda: Just like a class syllabus or a role sheet — specific, goal-oriented, with time allocations.
• Assign clear roles: MC, timer, note-taker. Defined roles exist in every successful gathering — they should exist in meetings too.

During: Execute with Energy

• Open with purpose and outcomes: Finish this sentence: “At the end of this meeting, we will…” If you don’t have a clear, actionable, and relevant takeaway, you need to define the purpose first.
• Stick to the agenda: Respect the clock. Start and end when you said you would.
• Balance Participation: Toastmasters does this brilliantly — everyone speaks, not just the loudest voice. Meetings should too.
• Keep Energy Up: Signpost (“First… Next…Moving on...Finally”) so people stay oriented and engaged.

After: Lock in the Value

• Crystal-Clear Action Items: Who’s doing what, by when. Always.
• Share Notes Fast: Think “video recap” from a show or a class handout. Short, sharp, useful.
• Follow Up with Accountability: Start the next meeting by checking progress from the previous one. Someone might get caught slacking, but no one wants to show up unprepared twice.

Learning from the Best

• Toastmasters: Clear agendas, strict timing, evaluators = accountability and growth.
• University Classes: Defined objectives, balanced participation, homework = focus and follow-through.
• Live Shows: MC, sound crew, video team, door guy = roles that keep the event flowing.
• Corporate Pros: Bezos’ “two-pizza rule” – if two pizzas can’t feed everyone in the room, there are too many people. Sheryl Sandberg’s “What decision are we making?” principle keeps discussions sharp and focused.

Turn Meetings Into Your Competitive Advantage

Meetings don’t have to feel like a slow death. The same principles that keep Toastmasters sharp, classes on track, and live shows electric can keep your team aligned and energized.

Try one change in your next meeting — a timer, a role assignment, a crystal-clear agenda — and you’ll see the difference immediately.