Meetings

The most precious resource in the universe? Time. It’s finite, and we can’t create more of it, which is why we approach our use of time with appropriate care and intentionality.

In my experience as a CEO and former strategy consultant, I’ve observed that organizations often use time poorly. Many companies will conduct frequent, large, wasteful meetings for the performance art of being a meeting participant.

Ideally, the best meeting is one not held. That said, we recognize there are some situations where meetings are highly valuable. If a meeting is necessary, then it should be conducted well.

How we use our time

At Atono, 90% of employee time should be dedicated to activities that directly contribute to our customers’ success. The remaining 10% should be used for 1:1s, administrative tasks, reviews, and essential ceremonies (standups, design reviews, shoulder surfs, retrospectives, or well-run, purposeful meetings). If you’re consistently spending more than 10% on non-value-adding activities, please discuss this with your boss or directly with me.

Smart meeting basics

If you must hold a meeting, here are a few game rules we've collected over the years:

Meeting size: Follow Amazon's two pizza rule if you can't feed everyone in the room with two pizzas, your meeting is too big. Invite only those absolutely needed, and let everyone else focus on their work without interruption.
Value of meetings: Consciously decide if asking 10 people to spend an hour is worth 10 hours of collective work. Also, remember that it's 10 hours diverted from other essential tasks. Always evaluate if the benefits of the meeting justify the investment of our most precious resource time.
Scheduling and length:
- Duration: Meetings should only last as long as necessary, never exceeding 30 or 60 minutes. If your meetings consistently end at 60 minutes, they can likely be shortened with better preparation and a more focused agenda.
- Timing: Opt for end-of-day when possible. Most people are less effective at 4 pm than at 9 am. By scheduling meetings at the end of the day, people can use their peak hours for the hardest tasks. This also helps us stay honest to end on time or earlier.
Preparation: To ensure our meetings are as effective as possible, please provide all necessary written information in advance. Whether it's via Slack, slides, email, or video message, sharing materials that can be consumed asynchronously enables everyone to come prepared and ready to engage.
Forced preparation (optional): Consider adopting Amazon's quiet rule for the first five minutes for each person to review any preparation materials.
Objectives: To make sure the objectives of the meeting are well understood, consider what type of meeting it is. This will guide its structure and goals:
- Recurring: Such as standups, sizing, and shoulder surfs where the format is well-known.
- Brainstorming: To generate ideas, without needing to reach a conclusion.
- Educational: You are instructing and attendees are learning.
- Decision making: Focused on reaching a specific decision. Identify the decision maker, outline the decision process, and plan for information sharing after the decision (showing your math).
Assign meeting roles: Make sure there is an assigned leader, participants, and note-taker. If actions are taken during the meeting, they should be noted and sent in writing afterward. Our default is Slack, but consider a shared document if state or future reference is needed.
State the rules: Are you using a parking lot? Is any idea welcome or do you need to constrain idea generation for this meeting to make a decision? Are questions interactive or held to the end?
Participation: If you are conducting the meeting and are seeking participation, use an effective tool to solicit it (to avoid the loudest voice being the most heard):
- Solicit comments by going around the table.
- Use anonymous methods (stickies on a board) for idea generation.
- If unruly, consider a flag (whoever has the flag has the floor).
Close the meeting: Without being rude, be quick to thank everyone for their time and close the meeting. Allow people to return to value added activities (like family time).
Feedback: Encourage feedback from attendees. For example: If I could have used our time more effectively, please Slack me with your feedback.
Follow up: We believe in showing our math, so if you've used others' time, you owe them the results of the work (Slack is fine). If actions were agreed upon, proactively deliver the results to the team so no one has to ask, Hey, whatever happened to the actions from that super fun meeting we had last month?

Chapters

Chapter 6

Meetings

The most precious resource in the universe? Time. It’s finite, and we can’t create more of it, which is why we approach our use of time with appropriate care and intentionality.

Ideally, the best meeting is one not held. That said, we recognize there are some situations where meetings are highly valuable. If a meeting is necessary, then it should be conducted well.

How we use our time

Smart meeting basics

If you must hold a meeting, here are a few game rules we've collected over the years:

Meeting size: Follow Amazon's two pizza rule if you can't feed everyone in the room with two pizzas, your meeting is too big. Invite only those absolutely needed, and let everyone else focus on their work without interruption.
Value of meetings: Consciously decide if asking 10 people to spend an hour is worth 10 hours of collective work. Also, remember that it's 10 hours diverted from other essential tasks. Always evaluate if the benefits of the meeting justify the investment of our most precious resource time.
Scheduling and length:
- Duration: Meetings should only last as long as necessary, never exceeding 30 or 60 minutes. If your meetings consistently end at 60 minutes, they can likely be shortened with better preparation and a more focused agenda.
- Timing: Opt for end-of-day when possible. Most people are less effective at 4 pm than at 9 am. By scheduling meetings at the end of the day, people can use their peak hours for the hardest tasks. This also helps us stay honest to end on time or earlier.
Preparation: To ensure our meetings are as effective as possible, please provide all necessary written information in advance. Whether it's via Slack, slides, email, or video message, sharing materials that can be consumed asynchronously enables everyone to come prepared and ready to engage.
Forced preparation (optional): Consider adopting Amazon's quiet rule for the first five minutes for each person to review any preparation materials.
Objectives: To make sure the objectives of the meeting are well understood, consider what type of meeting it is. This will guide its structure and goals:
- Recurring: Such as standups, sizing, and shoulder surfs where the format is well-known.
- Brainstorming: To generate ideas, without needing to reach a conclusion.
- Educational: You are instructing and attendees are learning.
- Decision making: Focused on reaching a specific decision. Identify the decision maker, outline the decision process, and plan for information sharing after the decision (showing your math).
Assign meeting roles: Make sure there is an assigned leader, participants, and note-taker. If actions are taken during the meeting, they should be noted and sent in writing afterward. Our default is Slack, but consider a shared document if state or future reference is needed.
State the rules: Are you using a parking lot? Is any idea welcome or do you need to constrain idea generation for this meeting to make a decision? Are questions interactive or held to the end?
Participation: If you are conducting the meeting and are seeking participation, use an effective tool to solicit it (to avoid the loudest voice being the most heard):
- Solicit comments by going around the table.
- Use anonymous methods (stickies on a board) for idea generation.
- If unruly, consider a flag (whoever has the flag has the floor).
Close the meeting: Without being rude, be quick to thank everyone for their time and close the meeting. Allow people to return to value added activities (like family time).
Feedback: Encourage feedback from attendees. For example: If I could have used our time more effectively, please Slack me with your feedback.
Follow up: We believe in showing our math, so if you've used others' time, you owe them the results of the work (Slack is fine). If actions were agreed upon, proactively deliver the results to the team so no one has to ask, Hey, whatever happened to the actions from that super fun meeting we had last month?