Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business

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To stick to this, you need to eliminate small talk, discourage latecomers, ensure the meeting agenda is adhered to without going off on a tangent, and let everyone have their say. Because there isn’t enough time during the 1-2 hour Weekly Tactical meeting to flesh out all of the brainstorming, analysis and preparation that is required to gain alignment on long term strategic decisions. Daily Check-In: a quick five-minute meeting in which each person reports their activity for the day. He recommends budgeting 2 hours per critical topic to allow time for open-ended conversation and debate. Casey McDaniel, the founder and CEO of Yip Software, is in the midst of a problem he created, but one he doesn’t know how to solve.

I’ve been on staff teams where there has been these two elements and I’ve been on teams where this is lacking. They are the activity at the center of every organization, and should therefore be both interesting and relevant in the lives of participants. I was already familiar with the concepts from other Lencioni books (The Advantage, Five Dysfunctions and others) but this one goes in depth with all the key elements of an efficient meeting. With nearly 30 years in the field, Nancy is highly sought after as a versatile provider to many companies within a variety of industries. The widespread appeal of Lencioni’s leadership models have yielded a diverse base of clients, including a mix of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports organizations, the military, non-profits, universities and churches.This begs the question: How is it possible that the majority of us have a pernicious attitude towards an activity that we do more often than any other, and one that is absolutely critical to the success of our business?

The strategy sounds good, but will require some tweaking, I think to work in various situations, and I don't think it provides an end-to-end solution to business woes, or even challenges with making your meetings effective. Packed with practical advice and examples, Death by Meeting will help you improve your meeting structure, participation, and results. This makes sense because the agenda should be based on what everyone is actually working on and how the company is performing against its goals, not based on the leader’s best guess forty-eight hours prior to the meeting. This often requires a change of scenery so that executives can interact with one another on a more personal level and remind themselves of their collective commitments to the team.I also recommend reading Patrick's other title on the "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" as it melds very well with this one to build overall team strength with robust communications and a trust ethic that gets results. Lencioni believes that the meetings are not inherently boring, especially with all the dynamic interactions and vital decisions being made that impact the corporation and the team members' livelihood. It is imperative that the leader mines for conflict in these meetings and that the team engages in constructive debate as they work to arrive at the best solution. The new meeting formats incorporate human drama in the form of constructive arguments, challenging decisions, and robust debates, injecting life into what was once a monotonous routine. The results are more engaged attendees, more effective decision-making, and a more vibrant company culture that celebrates diversity and conflict.

The truth is, the only thing more painful than confronting an uncomfortable topic is pretending it doesn’t exist. While I suspect they may be helpful, he doesn’t really present any empirical evidence to prove that his ideas are effective in the real world. The most justifiable reason to loathe meetings is that they don’t contribute to the success of our organizations. It's not about the quantity of meetings (although they can be reduced sometimes) but mostly about the quality and value of them.Yet, when asking if a room of executives would rather go to a meeting or a movie, most always pick movies. To make meetings less boring, leaders must look for legitimate reasons to provoke and uncover relevant, constructive ideological conflict. They may evaluate the strength of their own team, or the strength of their organization with a personnel review.