Jeff Bezos suggests the “two pizza rule” for Amazon meetings, no more attendees than can be fed with two pizzas. (About 6-10 people.) Meetings with more than ten people risk diluted communication, allow people to go passive (hide in plain sight), and undermine decision making.
Here are 5 other ways to ensure you have productive meetings:
1.) Someone Must Lead the Meeting. Leaderless meetings can be nebulous, are often frustrating, and they waste time. Meeting leaders provide structure and keep things on track.
2.) There Must Be a Clear Agenda. Articulate a clearly defined goal for each meeting. It doesn’t have to be a tome, just a stated productive outcome. Start by asking the $64,000 question: “When we end this meeting, and we believe it was productive, what will have changed? What will have been accomplished?”
3.) Use a Parking Lot for Good Ideas that Might Need Attention Later. Don’t throw away valuable input for the sake of running a disciplined meeting. Have a space on the wall in which people can place Post-it notes with good ideas to consider later or consider in other contexts.
4.) Encourage Productive Conflict. People who care show up with passion. That’s a good thing. When people show up with passion there is bound to be conflict. Productive conflict is not about personalities or politicking, it’s about the team’s task, mission, or purpose. Patrick Lencioni says teams that lack productive conflict encourage back-channel communication, ignore controversial topics that may be crucial to success, and fail to tap the input of all team members. Meetings leaders should encourage productive conflict. Meetings that lack passion are painfully boring, too.
(Engaging in productive conflict requires higher levels of Adaptive Development. Not getting intimidated or lost in a passion-filled meeting takes psychological and emotional agility.)
5.) Start and End on Time, and Make Meetings Short. Respect your team members by making meeting duration predictable. Respect their busy schedules by keeping meetings short.
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