Too often in our careers we are called into meetings, and more often than not we find ourselves losing focus, dozing off, or staring into space. Let's face it, unless the material is directly affecting us and our daily tasks, we just don't pay attention. Slide shows of spreadsheets, budget numbers, and recent expenditures is just hard to jazz up, especially when the people presenting are not motivated to make their presentations engaging.In Death by Meeting, Patrick Lencioni looks to share with us how meetings can single handedly be the downfall of any company or organization, and just how important it is to improve interoffice communication. The story takes life-like events and rather than write a dry "how to" book, he focuses on creating a story that is rich with detail, realism, and most importantly a strong message.
We start with a fictional game design company, Yip Software, and look deep into the meetings between the CEO and his executives. By weaving an engaging story, Patrick Lencioni is able to point out the downfalls of weekly meetings with no purpose, and the unhappiness of employees within the organization. The unhappiness is made even more evident when sales start to slide and they eventually concede to be absorbed by a much larger company, Playsoft. During this merger Playsoft management sends in a single observer, J.T. Harrison, to observe the inner workings of Yip Software. When the CEO of Yip, Casey McDaniel, is given a time table to turn things around he looks to old friend and outside assistance from the most unlikeliest of places.
Over all Death by Meeting effortlessly takes us step by step in how to boost meeting effectiveness, efficiency, and interoffice communication. The ideas he presents are practical and applicable no matter what industry you are in. Too often professional staff are caught up in meeting after meeting for the sake of having a meeting. Patrick Lencioni defines for us four types of meetings:
1. The Daily Check-in: a five minute meeting that ensures priority of tasks and quickly updates everyone on the status of various projects and reduces useless chatter via email or phone
2. The Weekly Tactical: a 45-90 minute meeting focusing primarily on immediate issues and concerns
3. The Monthly Strategic: a two hour per topic meeting focusing on the big picture topics that provide direction and focus; gives employees opportunity to tackle and debate issues
4. The Quarterly Off-Site Review: a lengthy "getaway" meeting that takes executives away from the daily grind to focus on their teams, their personnel, and the industry as a whole and how they fit into it
Patrick Lencioni is no stranger to the topics he discusses in his books. Patrick Lencioni has founded a consulting firm called The Table Group, which is focuses in leading companies to success by seeking to fix the problems from within. His work has been featured in INC Magazine, USA Today, Entrepreneur, and Harvard Business Review.
Patrick has also written several other books of critical acclaim including, The Five Temptations of a CEO, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The last of which was covered in an excellent interview in Management Consulting News.
Below is a video of Patrick during one of his speaking seminars:
I highly recommend this book for both the executive and the employee. The executive can learn how to handle the reigns during a meeting and not just boost the morale of his staff, but also increase the productivity and pride their employees have in their work. The employee can learn how to coordinate and prepare their own departmental reports in an effort to convince others to emulate their own efforts, thus making the meeting more useful in a shorter amount of time.
