- Meeting Tips
How Amazon, Apple and Google Run Meetings
By Stephen Weber
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Amazon, Apple and Google each settled on a few meeting rules early and enforced them from the top. None of them is complicated, and every one of them works for a ten-person team.
Meetings at Amazon
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos set a handful of meeting rules that became famous well beyond Amazon.
The Two Pizza Rule
Meetings should be small enough for two pizzas to feed everyone in attendance. This ensures that collaboration is easy and others aren’t invited for the sake of being invited.
No More PowerPoint
Bezos banned using PowerPoint as a way of presenting in meetings. He argued that when simple numeric data is presented in bullet points it’s, “easy for presenters, but difficult for the audience.”
Silent Reading
Amazon meetings are known for opening with around 30 minutes of silent reading: everyone reads a six-page memo before anyone speaks. The memo replaces the presentation, so the meeting starts at the discussion. It also forces presenters to go deeper than the simplified data typical of a slide deck.
Meetings At Apple
Apple went from the colorful tech underdog of the ’90s to one of the largest companies in the world. Steve Jobs started a culture of accountability by conducting weekly meetings that set the tone for the rest of Apple.
Assign a Directly Responsible Individual
Apple is big on making sure no one is confused about who is responsible for what. They often assign a “DRI,” or directly responsible individual to each task assigned in a meeting. A common phrase heard around Apple’s office:
“Who’s the DRI on that?”
Always having one person responsible for a task creates a paper trail of accountability. If you find yourself asking after a meeting what got accomplished, it may be time to assign more tasks to walk away with. Don’t just talk about a decision, put the next steps in place before the meeting ends.
Plan for the Meetings Nobody Schedules
Jobs brought the same thinking to Pixar’s headquarters. He put the mailboxes, meeting rooms, cafeteria and bathrooms in one central atrium, so animators, software engineers and designers would run into each other several times a day. Director Brad Bird remembered that the layout “initially drove us crazy.” The point was to make it impossible not to run into the rest of the company.
Photo by Bernd Dittrich on Unsplash
Some of a company’s most useful meetings happen in a hallway, with no invite and no agenda. The DRI rule still applies there. When a hallway conversation turns into a decision, put a name and a date on it before everyone heads back to their desks.
Meetings At Google
As VP of Products at Google, Marissa Mayer averaged over 70 meetings a week, so she had to have an efficient system for keeping them productive.
Make Decisions Quickly
Mayer didn’t let important decisions wait:
“Decisions should never wait for a meeting. Otherwise, the velocity of the company is slowed to its meeting schedule. If a meeting needs to happen for something to get done, hold the meeting as soon as possible.”
According to her interview with Bloomberg, she had six main points for successful meetings:
- Set a meeting agenda
- Assign a dedicated note-taker
- Make micro-meetings out of big chunks of time
- Hold office hours to knock out quick discussions
- Use data to propose new ideas
- Stick to the meeting timer.
Apple’s DRI habit is the easiest one to copy on Monday. In Less Meeting every action item gets one owner and a due date, and it carries into the next meeting until that person closes it. Get started free for 14 days, no credit card required.
