Bringing people together—whether that’s your colleagues or clients—to work on the same project sounds simple. In practice, it rarely is.
As a freelance content writer, I’ve been on plenty of projects where everyone was doing their part, but conversations were happening in different places. One person thought a decision was final. Another hadn’t seen it yet. Timelines were mostly agreed on—until they weren’t.
At some point, it becomes obvious that we all really need to meet to align on priorities, dependencies, and next steps. And that meeting is called a coordination meeting.
Like any meeting, though, it only works if it’s planned and run with intention. In this guide, we’ll walk through:
A coordination meeting is a working meeting focused on aligning people, timelines, and tasks when multiple parties are involved in the same project. Its purpose is to make sure everyone understands what’s happening now, what’s coming next, and how their work connects to others.
Unlike status meetings, which often revolve around individual updates, coordination meetings focus on dependencies and logistics. They surface blockers, clarify ownership, and help teams adjust plans before small issues turn into delays. These meetings are especially useful when work spans teams, roles, or external stakeholders, such as clients or partners.
Coordination meetings are most valuable when work involves multiple people, moving parts, or handoffs. Rather than holding them by default, it helps to be intentional about when they’re needed.
Coordination meetings are especially useful at key moments, such as kicking off a project, moving from planning to execution, or preparing for delivery. These points often introduce new dependencies, timelines, or responsibilities that need to be aligned before work continues.
Some teams benefit from recurring coordination meetings, like daily standups or weekly syncs. A regular cadence can help teams stay aligned over time, as long as the meeting has a clear purpose and doesn’t turn into a routine status update.
Missed deadlines, repeated questions, duplicated work, or unclear ownership are all signs that your team may need better coordination. If progress feels slower than it should, or decisions keep getting revisited, it’s often time to bring everyone together to realign.
Knowing when to hold coordination meetings is only half the equation. When it comes to attendance, who you invite is just as important.
Coordination meetings typically include a mix of people responsible for planning, execution, and decision-making. This often means:
That said, not every coordination meeting needs the same group. Attendance should reflect what decisions need to be made and what dependencies need to be resolved in that session.
Smaller meetings are almost always more effective. When too many people attend, coordination meetings tend to drift into status updates or side discussions. A focused group makes it easier to surface blockers, resolve issues in real time, and leave with clear ownership.
If someone doesn’t need to contribute to decisions or next steps, they’re often better kept informed afterward through meeting minutes or a follow-up message.
The RACI framework—Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed—offers a simple way to decide who should attend. People who are Responsible or Accountable usually need to be in the meeting. Those who are Consulted may join as needed, while Informed participants can receive updates asynchronously.
🤔 New to the RACI framework? Check out our guide to improving meeting productivity to learn more about the RACI approach.
No meeting should run without an agenda. And look, it doesn’t have to be a three-page detailed one. But you should really have some plan for the meeting; otherwise, it won’t be productive. And the whole point of coordination is to be productive.
Some ideas what to include in your coordination meeting agenda template: 👇
📄 Need a template? Grab our free coordination meeting agenda below to use as a starting point.
|
🗓️ Running frequent meetings with clients? Here’s what to include in an effective client meeting agenda. |
Right, let’s get into the nitty-gritty—the real success formula for running coordination meetings, because you don’t want to walk away from one feeling even more confused.
Before you schedule a coordination meeting, take a moment to define exactly what it’s meant to accomplish. This makes it much easier to keep the conversation focused and walk away with clear outcomes.
Be clear about two things:
Coordination meetings only create value if what’s discussed actually carries through after the call. That’s why you should always document decisions and follow up afterwards. It’s best to assign a note-taking role to a specific person—preferably not the one leading the discussion.
During the meeting, it’s important to capture:
Notes don’t need to be exhaustive, but they should be clear and easy to reference.
Follow-up is just as important as documentation. Share meeting notes promptly so everyone leaves with the same understanding, including anyone who couldn’t attend. Action items should be tracked and revisited in the next coordination meeting to ensure accountability.
|
💡 Pro tip: Make meeting documentation and follow-up a habit—whether that’s your responsibility or someone else’s on your team. You don’t want to keep rehashing the same discussions over and over. With properly documented meetings, you can pick up where you left off and keep work moving forward. |
Using the right tools to facilitate coordination meetings is just as important to success. As a bare minimum, you should invest in 👇
A dependable video conferencing tool like Zoom is foundational for coordination meetings, especially when teams or clients aren’t in the same location. Features like screen sharing help teams walk through timelines, documents, or blockers together, rather than talking abstractly about them.
Shared documents, such as those created in Google Docs, are essential for agendas, notes, and action items. They give everyone a single, up-to-date reference point instead of scattered notes across inboxes and chat threads.
Using one shared document during the meeting also helps keep discussions focused. As decisions are made or blockers identified, they can be captured in real time, reducing the chance of misunderstandings later.
Coordination meetings should connect directly to how work is tracked day to day. At YouCanBookMe, we use Notion to manage projects, documentation, and tasks in one place. Other productivity tools like Asana are another popular option for task tracking.
The most important part isn’t the tool itself—it’s making sure decisions from the meeting are reflected in your project system. Updating owners, timelines, or priorities right after the meeting helps turn discussion into execution.
Scheduling coordination meetings shouldn’t require long email threads to figure out each attendee’s availability or to find the best time to meet. You should really offload these logistics to a dedicated scheduling app.
For example, a meeting scheduler like YouCanBookMe (YCBM) helps teams and clients find time to meet without back-and-forth, especially when multiple calendars or time zones are involved. Features like calendar overlay, pooled availability, automatic time zone detection, and meeting polls make it easier to coordinate meetings with the right people, at the right time, without tedious planning.
Automated confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups also reduce no-shows and keep recurring coordination meetings running smoothly. Instead of chasing responses or rescheduling at the last minute, teams can rely on a consistent setup that just works in the background.
You should also consider adding AI note takers to your meeting tech stack. Tools like Bluedot can support coordination by capturing summaries, decisions, and action items automatically. This allows participants to stay engaged in the conversation instead of worrying about writing everything down.
Used thoughtfully, AI notes can complement human-written summaries by speeding up documentation and reducing the risk of missing key points.
Effective coordination meetings rely on input from the people closest to the work. When only a few voices dominate, important details and risks can be overlooked.
Set clear expectations at the start of the meeting that participation is encouraged. Actively invite updates or input from those responsible for specific tasks, dependencies, or decisions. Structured approaches, such as calling on agenda owners in order, help balance participation and keep discussions focused.
This is especially important in cross-functional meetings, where quieter contributors often hold critical context. Creating space for everyone to speak leads to better decisions, clearer alignment, and stronger accountability across the team.
Even well-run coordination meetings should be reviewed from time to time. What worked a few weeks ago may no longer be the best use of everyone’s time as priorities and workloads change.
Periodically check in with attendees to see whether the meeting is still effective. Ask if the agenda needs adjusting, if the frequency makes sense, or if certain topics could be handled asynchronously instead. In some cases, the right decision may be to pause or cancel the meeting altogether.
This is especially important for recurring meetings like daily standups or weekly syncs. It is easy to keep running them out of habit, even when they are no longer delivering value.
This might seem like a small detail, but it can make a big difference. Leaving at least five minutes at the end of a coordination meeting creates intentional space for topics that surface during the discussion but were not part of the original agenda (As you can see, we’ve added this to the agenda template above!).
Coordination meetings often uncover new moving parts, risks, or follow-up questions as conversations unfold. Having a dedicated moment to capture and address these items helps prevent them from getting lost or pushed into separate meetings or conversations later.
Even with the right agenda, coordination meetings can lose their impact if a few common issues creep in. Be aware of the following pitfalls 👇
Well-run coordination meetings don’t happen by accident. They’re the result of clear goals, thoughtful preparation, and habits that support alignment before, during, and after the meeting.
If coordination meetings are part of your regular workflow, simplifying how they’re scheduled can make a noticeable difference. Instead of long email threads just to land on a meeting time, tools like YouCanBookMe can handle the process for you. And when you need to coordinate across multiple people, meeting polls offer a simple way to agree on a time without the usual back-and-forth.
Try YouCanBookMe for free today!