This email should be a meeting | Kevin Moore

Learning on the Loo — Episode 367
We have this thing at Google called "learning on the loo". Posts put up in bathrooms all over the company. Seriously. Anyway, I got one published on September 23, 2024.
Greta Googler has been trying to find a resolution on a design decision for weeks. Tessa Techlead doesn't understand the importance of the change and isn’t giving actionable feedback. Otto Othertimezone only replies to the thread once a day, so the discussion is moving slowly. Maybe Greta should get everyone into a meeting so they can quickly align, make a decision, and move forward.
It's a common refrain. Time is valuable. Every minute in a meeting is a minute other work is not getting done. Avoid scheduling meetings when an email (or perhaps a chat) would do the trick. But what about the opposite? Are there times when a thread in email, a bug tracker, or a document comment should become a meeting?
While there are no hard-and-fast rules, there are some indications that getting thread participants into a real-time discussion could be helpful: either (1) the conversation is slow or stalled or (2) it's headed in a bad direction.
If you do decide to pull the ripcord and schedule a meeting to unblock a thread, you owe it to your participants to keep it lean and focused. Follow these four rules of engagement: