67% of meetings are considered unproductive. Study the most successful CEO and transform your meetings today: Jeff Bezos is one of the most successful leaders of our time. Overseeing more than 1.5 million employees as of 2024. This begs the question. How does the busiest CEO manage his time? Luckily for us, he has shared his secrets. Steal Bezos’s rules for productive meetings today. Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect: 3 rules for highly productive meetings. 1. The two-pizza rule ↳ Limit the number of people to that of which two pizzas can feed. 2. The empty chair rule ↳ Leave one chair empty to represent your target customer. 3. Avoid Powerpoints ↳ Ditch slide shows. Bezos requires a 2-6 page written narrative instead. Now you know the rules here’s how to use them. Implement them through these actionable tips: 1. Keep it small ↳ Only invite those who must attend. ↳ Leave out any spectators or unnecessary tag along. 2. Write a detailed memo ↳ Craft a structured, 6-page memo that argues your position. ↳ Don’t be lazy and go into detail. (Bullet points are banned !) 3. Begin with "study hall" ↳ Your goal is to make sure everyone is on the same page. ↳ Spend the first section of the meeting reading the memo in silence. 4. Dive into a messy discussion ↳ Don't hold back on debate and tough questions. ↳ Ask questions to help you understand and gain clarity. 5. Finish with action items ↳ End every meeting by giving clear next steps to your team. ↳ Ensure tasks are assigned to individuals and have deadlines. What do you think of our Jeff Bezos drawing? Does it look accurate :) Let me know in the comments ⬇️ 📌 Want to download a high-res PDF of this sheet? 1. Follow Chris Donnelly 2. ♻️ Repost to your network 3. Subscribe to: https://lnkd.in/eVCiGdBU Follow the above steps and receive 50+ free learning resources to help you level up your business, career and life.
As a former Amazonian, and also as a visual person, I always struggled a lot in these kind of meetings. I am a slow reader in english (not my native), and usually I have to read technical docs not once but twice just to have a better picture of it. It was very difficult for me to share my thoughts in meetings because of the short time to read. That is why I usually asked the presenters to get the doc before the meeting, but many times they have it ready just before the meeting. I would prefer to have more visual guides plus the doc. I do agree that many times meetings could be unproductive but mostly because of side talks or discussions, or lack of clarity on presentation (presenter skills or insufficient material), not because of a PPT per se. Not everyone is a good presenter or writer. If you have a clear goal of the meeting and share it before the meeting, it is easier to meet the goal, but may times even participants don't know what they need from them. PS: I never saw the empty chair.
So- not all of this is accurate. I have worked at Amazon for 7 years and never seen the “empty chair rule” used or even talked about. The “memo” isn’t necessarily 6 pages. It can be 1 or 12, but meeting length varies based on doc length and there is a rule of thumb for that. Bullet points are not banned. The document is supposed to be fact based (don’t say that something is just good, give a baseline and data to show why it is good) and objective with background information, a synopsis of what you’re covering, what decision needs to be made, and next steps. Assuming that is the purpose of the meeting. The point is to get everyone on the same page quickly whereas a PPT is much easier to showcase a one sided argument or effectiveness can vary based on the personality of the presenter. Also- this is just for meetings in which you are presenting something for considetation. There are tons of team meetings and brainstorming sessions and other items in which you don’t have a doc to review at all.
No-one has the time to even read an agenda before attending a meeting. A memo? And to be read in silence by people in a room? Why not a prayer? 😱 Meetings are efficient (rather than effective) when people know WHY they are here, WHAT they can contribute to, and WHAT they will get out. My simple 3 rules for a productive meeting (and no need to reinvent the wheel, or have pizzas).
Anyone who thinks there’s a “one size fits all” approach to management is deluding themselves.
The pizza rule seems fairly vague - what style pizza? I know people who can down a couple of pizzas as an appetizer. How large a meeting should be depends on the goal. We have meetings to communicate something to staff, or gather data about a problem, or collaborate on a solution. Each goal may have different sized meetings and structures. 3. Study Hall and a written narrative. That seems stupid in most cases. People should clearly understand why they are going into a meeting, and they should have time to prepare their thoughts. You email reading material at least a day before a meeting so people can read, research and understand. Reading in a meeting is wasting time. An empty chair? We need to a visual aid to know we have customers? No Powerpoints? Some people need visual aids. I worked with a CEO that couldn't grasp the concept of losses over different units of time...I used a spreadsheet, Powerpoint and pictures would have been more appropriate. You need to know your audience. The looks like a disaster to me
Let everyone study a 2-6 page memo for 20-30 minutes before starting the meeting ? And that's your notion of productivity ? Everyone has their rules, and I like mine a lot better - borrowed to other legendary corporate thinkers of our time. - The Devil's rule: no more than 6 topics to cover, 6 points to a topic, 6 words to each point. Figures should be precise, and words even more. - The mini-skirt rule: keep it short enough to be interesting, yet long enough to cover what really matters. Sorry if this offends anyone ! - The elevator pitch: if it doesn't fit on one slide and can't be explained to a CEO in an elevator between floors, it's not a good idea ! I'm well known for making things complicated and encouraging long debates. 😅 But as far as presentation materials and meeting agendas stand, I always strive for efficiency and teamwork.
Sounds like you wish your name was Jeff… we can all learn lessons and surround ourselves with influential people or leaders. We are all individuals paving our own way through life! Sit in your chair eating your pizza whilst having a messy discussion with yourself in your study hall. Making sure you’re not dining alone and keeping a detailed structure of your action points! There are some individuals in this world that are cut from a different cloth… I applaud their dedication and achievements!!! If you’re one of those select individuals that can change the world we live in (BOOM💥) I appreciate the positivity of your message, but I won’t be downloading your PDF (In high res no less) I don’t care for likes or shares and I won’t respond to any comments to my response! Linkedin is a network for all and I’m all for positive messages!!! Have you ever heard the phrase “It’s how you carry yourself” ?? Manorizms!! 💥 Focus on number one 💥Focus on your own journey 💥Focus on reality 💥Ignore the noise 💥Carve your own path A meeting will and should always be driven with goals in mind. Everyone has their own goals/agenda, but if you have a personality and can engage and connect with others… (Boom 💥)
I like all these ideas, except one. I see reading a memo quietly together as a stark inefficiency. 12 people x 20 minutes = 4 person-hours of work… to read a memo. A thoughtful memo is a great primer for a meeting, which should be read and considered by attendees before coming to a meeting. The meeting organizer can summarize key points from the memo at the beginning to outline the agenda. What additional benefit do you get from reading a memo together in person?
Professional Researcher Algorithms, Models and Optimization (AMO Team) at EnergyVille / VITO
1w"Empty Chair Rule"??!? Really? Apart from the obvious (like not inviting more people than would be able to even all speak within one hour) *that* is your advice? Are we serious here? In early Warsaw-Treaty states they used to keep an empty chair in meetings for Comrade Stalin. Kind of reminds me on that... What do you do in online meeting? Is it enough if somebody keeps another chair at their home office, or do we need an Empty Chair Bot? In fact, if you think this is a good business idea, go ahead and keep it. No charge. So you wonder why Amazon is successful, and you boil it down to that?! 😩 Also, when did two pizzas become a benchmark for a number of people? Probably just sounds better than half a dozen to two handful. Seriously...