What Washington's Cities Say About Their Leadership Team Meetings
New research from 206 leaders across 46 Washington cities
"For me, it takes a very, very good meeting to replace no meeting at all."
City Administrator, Washington State
206 leaders. 46 cities.
A close look at what makes a leadership team meeting work.
74%
Satisfaction Isn't the Whole Story
74% of leaders are satisfied with their leadership team meetings. But satisfaction only measures how people feel, not the extent to which the meeting is producing decisions.
Washington's cities are strong on meeting structure, starting on time, giving everyone a chance to speak. But these widely adopted practices aren't what separates satisfying meetings from unsatisfying ones.
The Hidden Cost of Meeting Time
39% of CAOs spend 21 or more hours a week in meetings, more than half their working week, every week. And the cost doesn't end when the meeting does. Many need 30 minutes or more just to regain focus afterward, time that never shows up on any calendar.
39%
8%
The Rarest, Most Powerful Habit
Only 8% of teams regularly check whether their meeting is effective in advancing their work. It's the least common practice in the entire study, and the strongest predictor of a meeting that succeeds.
The Opportunity Cost
This study focused on the leadership team meeting primarily, but that meeting doesn't happen in isolation. It sits inside a calendar that's already full. The average CAO spends 35 working days a year, seven weeks, in meetings they themselves rate as low value.
Calculated from CAO's reported weekly meeting hours and how much of that time they rated as low value, across a 48-week year. Covers all meetings, not just the leadership team meeting.
35
days
"What would you do if you had seven more weeks?"
City Manager, Washington State
The Six Key Findings
Meeting hygiene isn't the lever, decision discipline is. Cities are strong on structure, weak on the practices that actually drive satisfaction: stating outcomes, recapping decisions, tracking action items, checking in on effectiveness.
The frequency paradox. 72% of teams meet weekly, yet weekly teams report the lowest satisfaction. Less frequent teams simply prepare better.
Ninety minutes is the sweet spot. Longer meetings don't produce better results. 90-minute meetings score highest on satisfaction.
Same meeting, different experiences. CAOs rate outcomes more favorably than department heads on 8 of 10 measures, yet are less likely to say they're very satisfied.
New team members change the meeting. More turnover correlates with lower satisfaction, driven by erosion of shared purpose, not structural breakdown.
For most cities, strategy has no consistent home. Most leaders describe their meeting's purpose as information sharing or council prep, not strategic thinking, and many can't say where that thinking happens instead.
The Meeting Discipline Index
The data informed a meeting satisfaction tool
Combining all 13 meeting practices into a single score, we found the strongest relationship in the entire study. Teams with more disciplined habits are significantly more satisfied, r = 0.53 individually, r = 0.70 across whole cities.
So What Do the Most Effective Teams Do Differently?
Not longer meetings. Not more of them. The cities getting the most from their leadership team meetings are bringing more intention to what happens at the start, at the end, and in the time between. Here are five practices worth trying.
Five Practices Worth Trying
Things you can do in your next meeting
1. Open With the Outcome
State what you want decided by the end of the meeting. It shifts a meeting from a string of updates that could have been an email into a discussion with a destination.
2. Close With a 2-Minute Recap
Before adjourning, restate what was decided, who owns what, and what's moving to the next agenda. It takes less time than the average status update.
3. Track Action Items Between Meetings
The single strongest driver of satisfaction in this study. Keep a running list visible to the team. Review it at the start of every meeting. Accountability is covered.
4. Ask the Team How It's Going
Only 8% of teams do this regularly. A quick end-of-meeting check-in is enough to close the gap between how leaders and their teams experience the same meeting.
5. Make Space for the Work Only This Group Can Do
83% of leaders describe their meeting's purpose as information sharing or council prep. Few mention strategy. Set aside time that isn't competing with this week's crisis.
Attribution & Citation
This research was conducted by Una McAlinden, Creative Strategy Solutions, in partnership with the Washington City/County Management Association (WCMA), with statistical analysis and research support from CTRS Market Intelligence. All data, graphics, and editorial content are the intellectual property of Creative Strategy Solutions.
Creative Strategy Solutions & WCMA (2026). What Washington's Cities Say About Their Leadership Team Meetings: A Study of Meeting Effectiveness and Meeting Load.
CTRS Market Intelligence.
