Jeff Bezos on How to Have an Efficient Meeting

We’ve all been there. The dreaded meeting that lacks a diligent start and stop time, leader, agenda, organization, and outcomes. It’s more than just a waste of time; it can be infuriating and disengaging. According to Jeff Bezos, Czar of Amazon, here are three rules to transform your meetings from time wasters to productive gatherings:

Two-Pizza Team Rule

The larger the team, the more opinions and the more difficult it becomes to reach conclusions, and make decisions.  At Amazon, they create teams of people that can be fed by two pizzas.

No PowerPoint

No PPTs are used inside of Amazon. For every meeting, someone prepares a six-page narratively structured memo with real sentences – not just bullet points.

Start With Silence

The memo is read silently during the meeting – like a Study Hall. Meeting attendees read for about a half-hour and then the group discusses the content. This ensures that everyone is in the know and on the same page.

What Can I Do? Be like Bezos.  Embrace these three rules and you may actually get things done in your meetings. As I say in my keynote address, “Engaging employees is not rocket science. Keep it simple, approach it strategically, execute, and hold people accountable.” The same holds true for your meetings.

Jill Christensen is an employee engagement expert, best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. She is a Top 100 Global Employee Engagement Influencer, authored the best-selling book,  If Not You, Who?, and works with the best and brightest global leaders to improve productivity and retention, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth by re-engaging employees. Jill can be reached at  +1.303.999.9224  or jill@jillchristensenintl.com.