Every Monday, 47 people joined a 90-minute company sync. Updates from each lead. Q&A that rarely happened. Most engineers had it on mute while shipping.

I calculated the cost once: 47 × 1.5 hours × loaded salary average ≈ $8,400 per meeting. Times 50 weeks. We were spending $420K/year on a meeting that produced one documented decision in six months.

We killed it.

What replaced it

Leadership sync — 45 minutes, weekly. CEO, VPs, decisions only. Notes in one doc.

Team demos — 30 minutes, biweekly. Voluntary attendance. Eng shows shipped work. Sales shows won deals. Energy without obligation.

Written weekly memo — async. CEO posts metrics + 3 priorities every Monday 8am. Comments in doc, not a call.

6 hrs
Average weekly meeting time saved per IC after canceling company-wide sync

Pushback

“Culture will suffer.” Engagement survey scores went up slightly — people felt less drained. Culture isn’t attendance; it’s whether work feels meaningful.

“Cross-functional visibility.” Demos handle that better than status readouts.

The most expensive meetings are the ones everyone attends and nobody owns.

Meeting audit questions

  1. What decision was made last time?
  2. Who actually speaks vs. listens?
  3. Could this be a doc?
  4. What happens if we skip two weeks?

Six months later

Calendar heatmaps look different. ICs report more deep work blocks. Leadership is slightly less aligned on trivia, significantly more aligned on priorities — because those get written down.

Kill the meeting that exists because last year someone said “we should sync more.” Keep the ones that change what ships.