Death by Meeting

Another essential Lencioni fable

Another excellent business fable by Patrick Lencioni. It had a lot of nuggets that were really useful to put into use immediately. An important learning from Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable…About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business was the concept of “Mining for Conflict.”

Lencioni encourages the leader to seek out opposing opinions so that you can have a healthy discussion. The job of the leader is to listen to everything and then make a decision. I have already found that seeding strategic discussions early and encouraging this healthy debate is providing a lot of value. For this to work, the topics have to be “big.”

Key Takeaways:

• Don’t Mix Tactical and Strategic: Keep these meetings separate. Mixing immediate “firefighting” with long-term planning dilutes the effectiveness of both.
• The Tactical Format: The author suggests a round-table style where topics are put on the table in real-time. A variation I’m exploring is reading notes first and then having a tactical discussion.

Good meetings are energizing, they get things done, and they get the team aligned.

I am still experimenting to find the perfect cadence for a project weekly meeting, but this book provides an excellent set of best practices to pull from. An excellent read for any leader looking to improve team productivity.