Spend less time and get more done – Like Amazon Does
One of the most successful companies in recent memory is Amazon. Starting with selling books online, the company continued to evolve, becoming the retail choice for getting anything you want while hosting online operations for thousands of other businesses. It’s an incredible story about being in the right place at the right time. However, that would cheapen the highly competitive culture Amazon has built over the years, which has enabled it to accomplish everything it has.
One aspect of that culture we might all learn from is Amazon’s focused approach to meeting management.
Almost every organization I know of complains about the time they waste in meetings. Not Amazon. They have revolutionized how they spend their time in meetings.
To increase productivity, every meeting falls into one of four categories—information gathering, information sharing, brainstorming, or problem-solving—and the purpose is clear before the meeting begins. These tools help everyone come prepared and stay focused on the meeting goals, which in turn helps them spend less time in meetings and get more work done. If you want to boost the productivity of your meetings, you might consider something similar.
Let me explain how they do it.
- Information Gathering
When Amazon holds an information-gathering meeting, the goal is for attendees to bring their collective knowledge—derived from reports, analysis, and data—together. They also want to identify any missing data or information to bring to the next meeting. What’s critical is that the meeting stays laser-focused on gathering the information—and not anything else. This meeting will likely serve as a precursor to the next meeting, where the information collected will be shared.
2. Information Sharing and Analysis
Once the team charged with gathering information concludes its meeting, Amazon will call another type of meeting to share and process that information, often with a separate group of people. That might look like a team of analysts gathering information, and then a spokesperson or manager shares the results of that work with a group of executives. The idea is that Amazon doesn’t waste its executives’ time asking them to chase down the information. They attend this meeting to gather the key conclusions and insights they need to decide on a critical action, develop a new line of business, or solve a problem—which would typically occur in a separate meeting.
3. Brainstorming
Another meeting Amazon calls focuses more on ideation and the future through brainstorming. This meeting could involve the executives who attended the information-sharing meeting. Those executives might now use that information to help discuss how they can take advantage of a new opportunity or open up a new line of business. A significant breakthrough idea, such as Amazon Prime, was probably conceived in one of these brainstorming meetings.
4. Problem-Solving
The fourth variety of meetings Amazon holds focuses on solving problems. Perhaps the topic is how to grow revenue, improve margins, or accelerate their product development process. Regardless, each meeting is about zeroing in and focusing on solving a specific problem, using the information and ideas generated and shared from other meetings as resources.
A Continuum
What’s particularly interesting is how Amazon uses the four meeting types to create a continuum, where each meeting provides information for the next. It allows them to keep each meeting focused, saving time while ensuring the right people are involved in each discussion.
The system can break down when you let your discipline lapse regarding what is discussed in each meeting. You lose the magic when your information-gathering meeting turns into a brainstorming session. People become confused and unfocused, which can easily lead to bad decision-making. And that is how a good meeting turns into a time-waster.
To achieve the same focused results that Amazon has enjoyed, you must remain constantly aware of this. However, consider shifting your meeting cadence to focus on four key topics. In that case, you can accomplish much more within your organization with significantly less wasted time.
