Meeting vs. Email Flowchart

What you'll find in this email vs. meeting flowchart

This is a hands-on tool for anyone looking to promote smarter, more effective communication across their organization. Here’s what you can expect:

• A clear decision-making framework to reduce meetings: This flowchart provides five targeted questions to help employees think through whether a meeting is truly necessary. Covering aspects like purpose, urgency, and complexity, it encourages users to pause and make more intentional choices about replacing a meeting with an async option. It’s a practical way to help others understand when to hit “send” instead of “schedule.”
• Real-world examples to make it actionable: Knowing the right questions to ask is only part of the solution. This flowchart includes examples of meetings that often create unnecessary interruptions but can easily be restructured into an email. For instance, those recurring status updates? They can become a weekly email with bulleted points, links to key resources, and clear next steps. The same goes for decision-making or training sessions – it’s about showing how to share information effectively without taking up everyone’s time.
• Steps to encourage async communication across your organization: To drive real change, buy-in from leadership is crucial. The guide provides you with tips on gathering leadership support by presenting data on time savings and productivity boosts. With guidance on creating company-wide guidelines, featuring success stories, and establishing best practices, this tool will help you spark a shift toward async communication that sticks.
• Best practices for creating impactful async messages: Moving meetings to email is only effective if the emails themselves are clear and actionable. The flowchart guide shares strategies for structuring emails that avoid overload, deliver clarity, and communicate expectations. Suggestions include setting response deadlines, breaking down complex topics, and using bullet points to keep messages digestible. By setting a high standard for async communication, you help teams replace meetings with meaningful, easy-to-process updates.
• Guidance for supporting diverse employee needs: With different teams come different needs. The flowchart recognizes the unique challenges across office teams, remote employees, and frontline workers. For instance, global teams benefit from async updates that accommodate time zones, while frontline employees can stay engaged without having to step away from their work. This flowchart helps you support everyone with the flexibility they need.

With this flowchart in your toolkit, you’ll empower your organization to transform meeting overload into a culture of efficient, flexible, and inclusive communication. Let’s make sure every meeting matters – and every non-meeting does too!