Great Meetings, According to Star Trek

By Ben Opp, SPHR, HR Hotline and Content Advisor
Published August 13, 2024

By some miracle, my Gen Alpha kids absolutely love Star Trek: The Next Generation. This fills my nerdy millennial dad heart with joy, because we can snuggle up together on the couch and engage some of the best (and let’s be honest, some of the worst) sci-fi content of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. (If you need to catch up, skip the first season and start watching when Riker has a beard – that’s the good stuff.) 

In boldly going where my kids have not gone before, I noticed something: In just about every episode, somebody calls a meeting. The senior staff of the Enterprise gather, usually in that windowed conference room with stars streaking by at warp speed, to strategize and solve the episode’s problems. Now, meetings generally don’t make for compelling television, but these are really great meetings. I now recognize that my lifelong expectations of healthy team dynamics were birthed right here, in the Enterprise briefing room. 

• PowerPoints are short. Geordi or Data might bring a visual of a space-time distortion, but it’s one or two slides at most. Information delivery is succinct, and the focus is on solving the problem at hand. 
• Everyone respects everybody else. Each member of the team is counted on to contribute from their area of expertise, and everybody gets a fair hearing. There’s no ego. The quality of the idea is all that matters. 
• Nobody is afraid of conflict. If your idea is too aggressive, would violate the Prime Directive, or would take too long, you’ll get pushback. There’s no coddling, but again, always with tremendous respect. 
• No time is wasted. Meetings are always short and impactful. The objectives are clear. Everybody arrives on time, even if the warp core is overloading. 
• There’s a decision by the end of the meeting. No cans get kicked down the road. This team formulates a plan, even if that plan is to develop options and reconvene at oh-six-hundred hours. 

I’ve always wanted to have a seat at that briefing room table as part of a diverse team (age, race, gender, disability), where every voice is respected, and each unique skillset is valued. 

The writers recognized this magic, of course, and gave us one final meeting, near the end of the recent Star Trek: Picard sequel. As he looks around the conference table at the team he trusts with his life, Captain Picard sums up years of galaxy-class teamwork: “All that matters is that we are all together, once more. Because I need you – all of you.” (I’m not crying, you’re crying!) 

I can’t say I’ve found a real-life team quite like the Enterprise crew (though the HR Source team comes pretty close!), and I’m not sure expectations set by a TV show will ever be met. Yet, I yearn and strive for this ideal. 

The next time you’re in a meeting, after you’ve vaulted over the back of your chair like Riker, think of the Enterprise – and make it so! 

What’s your top tip for making a meeting effective? Share yours in the All Members Community on HR Exchange.