Patrick Lencioni
brings an element of humor and reality in his book Death by Meeting.
Each of us can remember that meeting that would not
end. Or that meeting where we wondered
what we were doing there.
Lencioni takes a novel approach and suggests that perhaps it
is not that we have too many meetings, but not enough meetings. How can he possibly say that?
He summarizes his thoughts by saying that the main problems
with meetings are two-fold. First, meetings
are boring. Second, they are
ineffective. He believes that the most compelling
reason that meetings are boring is that they lack drama and conflict. The main reason that they are ineffective, he
says, is that they lack contextual structure.
This is because we only have one type of meeting. He suggests that we need multiple types of meetings
and that we clearly distinguish between them for purpose, format and timing.
He proposes four types of meetings:
The Daily Check In - a standing meeting lasting five
minutes, and definitely not more than ten.
The Weekly Tactical - a forty-five minute meeting that
starts with a quick listing of priorities and then follows a real-time agenda,
set during the meeting.
The Monthly Strategic - this is a more structured meeting
that does not veer off course from strategic items and where the agenda is not
overcrowded.
The Quarterly Off-Site Review - Rather than a
boondoggle, this includes a comprehensive strategy review, a team review,
personnel review and a competitive and industry review.
The book is an extremely easy and quick read and brings a
new perspective to the corporate meeting.
I want to acknowledge Trevor Klein, the Co-Founder and SVP
of Business Development of AutoAnything, a friend and client who first introduced
me to Lencioni and his ideas.