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# Run Effective Meetings: Insights from a Google Expert
- URL: https://www.jeffsu.org/run-effective-meetings-insights-from-a-google-expert/
- Published: 2023-04-09T10:30:13.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-05T13:06:55.000Z
- Author: Jeff
- Tags: Career, Communication

I recently completed a training on how to run effective meetings, led by Google’s Productivity Advisor (yes that’s an official title), [Laura Mae Martin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramaemartin/?ref=jeffsu.org).

It was a 30-minute training but I’ve summarized my learnings down below:

## Key Takeaways

### PAR

Every single meeting should include PAR -

- Purpose (everyone knows why we’re meeting)
- Agenda (pre-read needs to be sent via email or included in the calendar invite
- Results (what is the ideal outcome of this meeting?)

### Value

Each meeting participant should either be:

- **Adding value** (this discussion couldn’t have taken place without \[this person\]); OR
- **Getting value** (okay thanks, information shared in this meeting will help me make a better decision)

This means the responsibility for having an effective meeting is split evenly between the organizer and the participants:

- E.g. Organizer is responsible for sending a concise pre-read, and the participants are responsible for reading it and coming to the meeting with questions

### Fight for your time

If you're not getting value as a meeting participant, challenge the organizer in accordance with your company's culture.

Be direct or phrase your feedback in a way that works for you.

For example at Google, I would feel comfortable telling someone more senior that:

> “this meeting might not be the best use of our time, is it possible for me to comment my feedback directly within the document?”

If a direct approach doesn’t work for you, remember it’s all about how you phrase the feedback:

> “I see your calendar is jam-packed. Would you mind sharing the agenda items ahead of time so I can come to the meeting prepared and maybe give us both 15 minutes back?”

This last point actually resonated with me the most because I hate whiners; we all have colleagues who come out of a meeting saying, “Wow that was a waste of time.”

But, in my opinion, if you - as a participant - didn’t take action to fight for your own time, then it’s really on you.

What do you all think? Do you agree? Disagree? Do you want an updated “[How to run effective meetings](https://youtu.be/LCiQFwAwJvI?ref=jeffsu.org)” video?

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