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This is similar to Bezos standard for meetings. The person who plan for a meeting has to prepare a 6 pages memo (full text prose). The first 15-30 minutes of th

This is similar to Bezos standard for meetings. The person who plan for a meeting has to prepare a 6 pages memo (full text prose). The first 15-30 minutes of the meetings are to allow everyone to read the memo. If you can't articulate your point in details, you are not ready to host your meeting.

codingdave 3y ago
I've heard how great this works for Amazon. But I've worked at two other companies who tried to implement it and it was an utter failure both times. If your meetings are not going well, adding more bureaucracy and time to force them to work well is not a solution that will work for all organizations.
singleshot_ 3y ago
Why don’t they read the memo before the meeting?
- samsin 3y ago
  You can’t guarantee everyone will read it, or dedicate the appropriate time and attention to it
- prepend 3y ago
  I think the reason I remember is because Bezos has meetings all day and doesn’t have time to read all the memos beforehand. Don’t think like an engineer with a few meetings and lots of prep time. Think like super busy people who have no prep time available. Or at least that your meeting isn’t a high enough priority to warrant them prepping.
  - singleshot_ 3y ago
    As an attorney, I think your second point is the most salient: the participants in a meeting at Amazon care even less than my clients would care about their smallest legal problem. If you wait until the beginning of the meeting to prepare, there is an extremely high risk that someone else in the room is prepared to eat your lunch. Don’t surrender the initiative by being lazy. Fwiw I bet Bezos pre-reads plenty of memos and I doubt very much that his is lazy. The point stands.
prepend 3y ago
I read an article about this a few years ago and tried it this way and send the memo out beforehand. It failed because key stakeholders just wouldn’t read the memo and I couldn’t figure out a way to make it work. Sadly, there was no autocratic power forcing the process. So it ended very frustratingly with people asking questions in the memo and asking for a summary presented to them. The memos were really helpful for product design so I still use the technique but just as a design reference for building.
- tweetle_beetle 3y ago
  I'm confused. If you were trying to recreate the method you'd read about, then I'm not sure you can say it failed when you left out the crucial element - dedicating time to reading the document together during the meeting. The whole point of the method is to address the premise that you cannot rely on people to read documents in advance.

codingdave 3y ago

I've heard how great this works for Amazon. But I've worked at two other companies who tried to implement it and it was an utter failure both times. If your meetings are not going well, adding more bureaucracy and time to force them to work well is not a solution that will work for all organizations.

singleshot_ 3y ago

Why don’t they read the memo before the meeting?

samsin 3y ago
You can’t guarantee everyone will read it, or dedicate the appropriate time and attention to it
prepend 3y ago
I think the reason I remember is because Bezos has meetings all day and doesn’t have time to read all the memos beforehand. Don’t think like an engineer with a few meetings and lots of prep time. Think like super busy people who have no prep time available. Or at least that your meeting isn’t a high enough priority to warrant them prepping.
- singleshot_ 3y ago
  As an attorney, I think your second point is the most salient: the participants in a meeting at Amazon care even less than my clients would care about their smallest legal problem. If you wait until the beginning of the meeting to prepare, there is an extremely high risk that someone else in the room is prepared to eat your lunch. Don’t surrender the initiative by being lazy. Fwiw I bet Bezos pre-reads plenty of memos and I doubt very much that his is lazy. The point stands.

prepend 3y ago

I read an article about this a few years ago and tried it this way and send the memo out beforehand. It failed because key stakeholders just wouldn’t read the memo and I couldn’t figure out a way to make it work. Sadly, there was no autocratic power forcing the process. So it ended very frustratingly with people asking questions in the memo and asking for a summary presented to them. The memos were really helpful for product design so I still use the technique but just as a design reference for building.

tweetle_beetle 3y ago
I'm confused. If you were trying to recreate the method you'd read about, then I'm not sure you can say it failed when you left out the crucial element - dedicating time to reading the document together during the meeting. The whole point of the method is to address the premise that you cannot rely on people to read documents in advance.