"Have you ever felt that 'regular meetings aren't going well' or 'issues aren't being shared'?"

In this article, we explain the root causes of ritualized regular meetings and seven concrete steps to improve how they are conducted. It's packed with know-how that project managers and those involved in project management can apply immediately in their work.

Regular meetings are meant to be a forum for accurately sharing project status. They also aim to face challenges and agree on solutions. However, in practice, they often become mere progress-reporting "rituals," leaving issues neglected.

The purpose of regular meetings is not to drill down on progress, but to achieve the following three points:

• Forming a Common Understanding: Eliminating information gaps within the team and aligning direction.
• Clarifying and Sharing Issues: Early identification of risks and bottlenecks, and consideration of countermeasures.
• Decision-Making and Action: Clarifying the next steps and who is responsible, making it possible to take action.

It's important not to end with a simple reporting session, but to agree on concrete countermeasures for issues and link them to the next actions.

Additionally, regular meetings function as a place to detect deviations from the plan early and bring the project back on track. In projects with high uncertainty, it's necessary to identify what is causing deviations early. Thinking of ways to address those obstacles and translating them into concrete actions is the key to success.

In many projects, regular or weekly meetings fall into a state of being followed as a mere routine or habit, and no longer function as a venue for real issue resolution or decision-making.

• The same progress report is repeated, and no concrete discussion arises.
• The meeting becomes just everyone reporting in turn, and it doesn't help move the project forward.

• Presentation → "Yes" → next… with no feedback or questions.
• The purpose and key points of the meeting are unclear, so the discussion doesn't deepen.

• Decisions and follow-ups from the previous meeting are not properly connected to subsequent meetings.
• Discussions and actions don't build on each other, so the meeting doesn't function as an "engine moving forward."

• The issue list has no priority or deadlines, so the order of tackling them is not visible.
• Because no one is assigned, progress stalls.

• Risks are listed but no countermeasures or resource allocations are made.
• No consideration is given to measures that would mitigate impact if risks materialize.

In one project, weekly meetings had become nothing more than repeating "excuses for not meeting progress." Reports were made, but discussions did not develop, and issues were left behind. The meeting minutes were filled with the word "under consideration."

I asked:

"Shall we talk about why things aren't progressing and what we can do to make progress?"

With that one question, the atmosphere changed, and the project's bottlenecks emerged clearly.
Regular meetings should not be post-mortems; they should be “action-planning sessions” to move forward.

• Narrow the agenda to "this week's challenges, concerns, and decision items."
• Share progress reports in advance, and focus on problem-solving during the meeting.

In the issue list, specify "when it occurred," "owner," "priority," and "countermeasure" in detail. Vague lists lead to shallow discussions.

Organizing the task list into three categories—"start date overdue," "approaching deadline," and "deadline missed"—is effective. Tasks not started are a primary cause of delay. Focusing on "delayed starts" prevents stagnation.

In practice, giving more importance to “planned start dates” rather than “expected completion dates” leads to earlier issue detection.

• At the beginning of the meeting, share "what we want to decide today" and "key points we want agreement on."
• Position the meeting as a space to organize problems and issues, clarify actions, and ensure deadlines are met.

Leveraging facilitation techniques to energize project meetings is essential for revitalizing ritualized meetings.

To avoid “air battles” (purely verbal discussions), sharing information in text is indispensable. Intentionally create a state where everyone is “seeing the same thing,” whether through documents, a whiteboard, or shared online documents. This prevents misunderstandings and makes discussions constructive.

Facilitators should not only share the agenda and purpose at the start of the meeting but also strive to visualize discussions in real time as needed. In remote meetings in particular, sharing meeting minutes on screen in real time allows all participants to immediately verify the content of the discussion, preventing gaps and discrepancies in understanding.

Instead of a meeting where “only the loudest voice is remembered,” having a meeting where “what was agreed, what was questioned, and what will be discussed next” is documented in text fosters trust and continuity.

• Strictly adhere to start and end times, and time-box each topic.
• Spend minimal time on sequential progress reports and focus on key issues.

• During the meeting, clarify “what,” “who,” and “by when,” and record them in the minutes immediately.
• Don’t leave things vague with “in progress” or “under consideration.”

If responses to issues and risks are vague, problems will recur. Organize issues and risks by type, and manage and track them with tools (e.g., Redmine). By specifying decisions and concrete tasks in the minutes and linking them to your progress management tool, you increase transparency in decision-making.

• At the end of the meeting, briefly communicate “topics for the next meeting” and “what to prepare.”
• Treat regular meetings not as standalone events but as part of a continuous improvement cycle.

By working backwards from sprints or milestones and sharing potential obstacles in advance, you can take preventive actions.

• Issues without a clear owner or priority tend to be put off.
• Clearly indicate who is responsible for what, making follow-up easier.

• If key stakeholders who are indispensable to the meeting are repeatedly absent, important decisions get deferred and specifications proceed ambiguously, increasing risk.
• Low attendance by key stakeholders often stems from unclear meeting purposes or time spent on irrelevant topics.
• You need to clarify the meeting’s purpose, participants, and expected actions and explicitly communicate that key stakeholders’ involvement is essential.

"Decisions about specifications are being made without Mr. XX—is that really okay?"
"If we don't correct our direction now, the project is in danger. So please attend the next regular meeting."

By directly requesting with specific background and necessity, you may change their behavior. It's also effective to align with key stakeholders individually before the meeting and share the meeting structure.

The previous chapter’s “practical techniques” focused on “how to run them.” Here, we introduce perspectives for reviewing “whether the regular meetings are functioning well.” Use these self-check points as a reference to see if your regular meetings have become ritualized in real situations.

• It may just be that they’re not visible. Check "why there are no issues."
• If “Nothing in particular” continues, it may just mean that issues haven’t been verbalized.
• Looking not only at reasons for no current issues but also concerns that may arise in the future will surface overlooked risks.

• Assign the meeting facilitator role to juniors or non-leaders to diversify perspectives.
• If the same person always leads, reporting patterns can become fixed.
• Changing the facilitator brings new discussion points and issues to light.

• At the end of each meeting, reflect on “how this meeting went.”
• Share improvement points and adjust the format for the next meeting as a team.

• Confirm “what was decided and what advanced in this meeting.”
• Visualizing a sense of achievement raises team motivation and sense of purpose.

• Share records on the spot and correct any ambiguities immediately.
• Formalize To-Dos and decisions to visualize the meeting’s effectiveness.

• Silent members’ voices often contain hints for issue discovery.
• Those who speak little often have latent insights.
• Asking specific questions like, “What do you think about ~?” brings hidden issues to the surface.

• Measure the effectiveness of the meeting by “whether the required actions were executed.”
• Focus on the rate of unstarted tasks and response delays—the proportion of actions not executed.
• Confirming based on action, not just quantitative KPIs, leads to substantive improvement.

• Unstarted tasks are a fundamental cause of delays.
• Focusing on “delayed starts” rather than deadlines can prevent stagnation.
• Organizing the task list into “start date overdue,” “approaching deadline,” and “deadline missed” is effective.

Regular meetings are a “navigation forum” for capturing reality deviating from the plan and charting policies for correction and advancement. If you operate them not as mere report sessions but as spaces for substantive discussion and consensus-building, your project will surely move forward.

If you feel your meetings “might be ritualized,” make at least one improvement starting today. We hope this helps kickstart your regular meetings into action.