Death by Meeting: My First Take
by edavis on 13/08/09 at 7:49 am
In an earlier post about running effective meetings, I stated that I read Patrick Lencioni’s book Death by Meeting and was going to give his ideas a try. So far, my team and I have experimented with the Daily Check-ins and the Weekly Tactical meetings. Here is my take:
Daily Check-ins
When I stated that I wanted to conduct Daily Check-ins, I’m fairly certain my team started pooling their money together to hire a hitman 
to have me whacked. And as I expected, the first week of Daily Check-ins was a struggle.
But do you know what? These meetings actually started working! Everyone was able to hear what tasks each person was working on. It really opened up the communication lines among team members. We clarified priorities. E-mail volume was reduced. Issues that were getting lost or not addressed as readily as they should have been were now being attended to and resolved. And as a result, we are more productive (and compared to other teams in my organization, we already were very productive).
From what I’ve seen, these meetings are here for the long-term. But to continue to be effective, it is imperative to keep these meetings short and not dwell on issues that should be saved for the Weekly Tactical.
Weekly Tactical
The Weekly Tactical is another issue. The idea of each member doing ~ 1 minute overview of their top 2-3 issues was working. What we are struggling with is creating an agenda based on the issues discussed in the Lightning Round. Also, the meetings were still bland and free of conflict.
So, I’m thinking of ways on how to improve these meetings. First, I want to introduce an agenda to the meeting. We will stay true to the Lightning Round, but supplement it with the top 2-3 issues we, as a team, should discuss. I feel confident in selecting the top 2-3 issues because the Daily Check-ins truly help clarify what those issues are.
Next, I want to cause discussion and/or purposeful conflict on the top 2-3 issues I’ve chosen for the Weekly Tactical. What can I take from Lencioni’s Death by Meetings to cause this purposeful conflict? According to Lencioni, I need to make everyone understand and appreciate what is at stake. I need to make them care. I need to jolt them and foster active debate. For us, I think it comes down to priorities. What gets completed now? What gets tabled for another time?
Lastly, I plan to utilize my noteaker and use his notes as part of both the Daily Check-ins and Weekly Tactical. Like Google, I want to use these notes to help the team recall the decisions made and the actions we need to take.
Overall, I like how our meetings have improved. But this is only the beginning. They can be more effective and I will continue to find ways to make this happen. And I’m open to hearing how others run effective meetings.
