Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable… about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business
by Lencioni, Patrick
Published: January 1, 2004
Read: February 18, 2020
Review
The story was pretty compelling for a business fable. And the advice the perfect mixture of simple, unique, and probably correct. But, more than that I LOVE the format of the story as a fable trying to teach/show practical management lessons through a story and characters. The idea of having characters embody certain perspectives to teach not just moral lessons and philosophy, but management, entrepreneurship, and business skills. I will definitely be on the lookout for more fable-like stories like this as I imagine this format could be done even better. So 3 stars for the story, but 4 stars for the innovation of the format, I will love to read more stories like this.
Notes
Meetings are a meandering talk with no one reviewing the agenda. Spend whatever amount of time talking about whatever. Avoid the heated discussions.
The movie theory of meetings. You need conflict. Hour long movies are engaging but meetings that affect your life are not. But it's more important it should be as engaging.
5 min daily standup of coordination.
Weekly hour long tactical meetings that you first review key metrics share what people are doing that week. Short term goal focused about this week and no agenda. 60 lightning round of key activities.
Monthly or ad hoc startegic meetings that are preplanned, agenda and leaders set, wrsetle issue to ground with lots of input. Really around important issues and address ad hoc even if you stay into afternoon because important. Need preparation and several hours 3-4 for one or two meetings.
Quarterly. Personnel review. Who do peers view as stars and failures. Not about extravagant getaways to Hawaii. Don't invite outsiders changes team dynamic. Need to get away. Good meetings save time people don't notice because it's minor ideas that are spread throughout the day in emails and misalignment.
Perspective of people approaching meeting more important then agenda or process. Not about ending meetings on time and less idea. Leaders need to look for legitimately reasons to provoke and uncover relevant identolgical structure. Need context of what topics are allowed, different types and format of meetings.
- Lack of drama
Participants need to be compelled to care. Setup plot.
Mine for conflict.
If not now, then eventually bubbles up and creates internal politics. Key moments of debating for the goes first time, important to point out what they are doing is good. Interpersonal tension when you question someone.
- Lack of context
Need different type of meetings. If possible daily is great, hardest part is making people give it a chance. People like to talk to cancel it, so always have it even if everyone isn't there
Review:Wow, I really love this format of story trying to teach/show a philisophy through a story. With characters the embody certain perspectives and create an idea with nuisance. Having characters you can remember so you can generalize from fictional evidence like people like to. So I really think there should be more types of these pseudo educational stories like Djoksvi characters talking about philisophy I would love a great writer to challenge business leaders to talk about entreprenuership. that being said, the story was entertaining and I liked it. But, I imagine this format of story could be done even better. So 3 stars for the story, but 4 stars for the innovation of the format, I will love to read more stories like this.