The common failure of "pre-read" meetings is that attendees don't do the reading. Atlassian, like Amazon, solves this by starting decision-making meetings with a dedicated, silent period where everyone reads the context document together. This guarantees shared context and makes the subsequent discussion far more effective.

To maximize the value of bringing teams together physically, focus on one of three goals. "Doing" involves collaborative work on a key project. "Learning" focuses on gaining business context. "Planning" aligns the team on strategy and roadmaps. This framework ensures gatherings are purposeful and effective.

High-performing remote teams exhibit "bursty" collaboration—short, intense periods of interaction followed by deep work. To enable this, teams should cancel recurring meetings and instead establish shared "collaboration hours" where everyone is available for ad-hoc problem-solving and spontaneous discussion.

Effective facilitation is more than just managing a meeting; it's creating "proactive, productive serendipity." By intentionally connecting the right people, making them feel welcome, and structuring the environment for psychological safety, a facilitator turns random chance into purposeful, high-value interactions.

The first step to better meetings is asking "should we have this meeting at all?" By eliminating purely informational meetings, you prevent the formation of norms like disengagement and silence. This makes it more likely that when a collaborative meeting is necessary, team members will actively participate.

Calendly is expanding beyond its core scheduling function to address the full meeting process. They are developing solutions for meeting preparation, in-meeting engagement, and post-meeting follow-ups. This strategy of expanding horizontally around a core user problem illustrates a powerful path for SaaS growth.

Status update meetings are a major productivity drain. Replace them with asynchronous videos (e.g., Loom). This method is more efficient, allowing people to consume updates on their own time. It also conveys more signal—tone, emphasis, and personality—than a written update, fostering better connection on distributed teams.

Productive teams need to schedule three distinct types of time. Beyond solo deep work and structured meetings, they must carve out 'fluid collaboration' blocks. These are for unstructured, creative work like brainstorming or pair programming, which are distinct from formal, agenda-led meetings and crucial for innovation.