Minecraft Holds the Key to Better Meetings

As a dad of two boys and two girls, I’ve seen how naturally they embrace digital, build-first environments. At school, they’re learning through interactive platforms. In their free time, they’re coding, designing and constructing virtual worlds with clear missions and outcomes. It’s second nature.

Meanwhile, in the professional world, meetings still feel like the opposite: rigid, repetitive and too often directionless.

A Movement Is Underway

Let me be clear: I’m not here to claim I’m going to fix meetings. That work is already happening.

We’re in a golden age of meeting reinvention. There’s serious innovation underway — from artificial intelligence note-takers like Fathom, Fireflies and Otter, to asynchronous updates, auto-agendas and new platforms like Contio, all rethinking the way we gather and make decisions. And they’re doing a pretty great job.

But this wave of efficiency has unlocked a deeper question: What is a meeting really for — and how can we keep making it better?

It’s no longer just about saving time. It’s about elevating the experience of collaboration.

The Problem: Meetings Still Fall Short

Even with all the tech, here’s what the data tells us:

• The average professional spends 11.3 hours a week in meetings.
• 64% of recurring meetings have no agenda.
• 57% of people say that meetings are a waste of time.
• 56% say that meetings kill creativity.
• U.S. companies lose an estimated $34 billion a year to unproductive meetings.
  

Even with tools that optimize the process, many meetings still lack intention, design and energy.

The Minecraft Mindset: Design the Experience

Minecraft works because it gives players a clear mission, a role to play, feedback on progress, and autonomy to build and collaborate.

What if we brought that mindset into our meetings?

What if every session had:

1. Clear objectives and “win conditions”
2. Assigned roles — facilitator, note-taker, timekeeper, decision-maker
3. Defined outcomes — decisions made, actions assigned, follow-ups clarified
4. Feedback loops — quick post-meeting reflections
5. Creative constraints — smaller groups, shorter durations, async-first defaults
   

That’s not utopian — it’s just thoughtful design.

A 5-Step Meeting Reboot

Here’s a simple way to experiment:

1. Agenda-first scheduling: Define the meeting’s purpose, goal and time limit. Keep the group focused and lean.
2. Assign roles: These might include facilitator, timekeeper, decision-maker and note-taker.
3. Clarify outcomes: What must be decided? Who owns what? When’s the follow-up?
4. Use feedback loops: What worked? What didn’t?
5. Go asynchronous when you can: Try a Loom instead of a meeting invite.

How We’re Reinventing Meetings

At Milemarker, we’re on this journey too. Not because meetings are bad — but because they deserve to get better. Here’s how we’re evolving our approach:

We use Strety to run our meetings in alignment with the Entrepreneurial Operating System. It’s beautifully built and helps us stay on track with goals, rocks and team health. It integrates well, keeps our team focused and has brought real rhythm to our leadership conversations.

We use AI note-taking with Fathom, and it’s been a game-changer. We save time, create better follow-up and ensure that key takeaways are actionable. It makes the whole experience more accountable.

We embrace async tools like Loom to reduce unnecessary meetings. Sometimes a quick video update or walkthrough is all that’s needed. It’s a subtle shift, but it opens up more time for deep work.

We’re not perfect — but we’re iterating. And it’s working. Meetings feel lighter, clearer and more connected to outcomes. And most importantly, we’re enjoying them more.

Final Level: Keep Building

We’re all living in a world where time is scarce, attention is fragmented and creativity matters more than ever.

So here’s my encouragement: Don’t settle for the default meeting. Don’t stop tweaking, adjusting, building.

Treat every meeting like a Minecraft level: Define the mission. Assign roles. Build together. Complete the level. Repeat.

Let’s stop surviving meetings — and start reinventing them.

Jud Mackrill is CEO and co-founder of Milemarker, helping wealth management firms unify data, streamline operations and build firmwide intelligence.

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