Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable…about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business by Patrick Lencioni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I rounded out my vacation by reading a Lencioni parable by the pool, because that’s the kind of geek that I am!
If you are in an environment where the first response to every issue is, “We need a meeting,” then this is the book for you! It demonstrates a great way to interpret the needs of a business and its employees by structuring appropriate meetings for each topic and function.
Lencioni, as always, presented the material in a fun, analogous way to make it resonate with small and large business structures.
As he points out, meetings can become monotonous and a huge waste of time. People would rather do anything than go to a meeting, when it really should be like playtime for executives. Matching structure to context, Lencioni devises ways for any business to change meetings from drudgery to enjoyable, productive time spent with your colleagues.
This is not a book about training, or executing conferences or workshops. If you are looking for ways to keep people engaged in learning, then another choice would be better.
If you find yourself scheduling meetings all day and qualify that time as different than hours when you “get real work done,” then you definitely need this book.
Here’s a tip if you are not in charge of meetings and will upset the status quo if you speak out of turn about the meeting drain at your company: suggest everyone read it as a book club subject. In one fell swoop, you might just get everyone on board to restructure meetings so that they are the real work.
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