Book Review: Read This Before Our Next Meeting

Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A fellow in an Option C Leaders book group (please visit www.creativeoptionc.com if you don't know what that is!) listened to this book on audiotape recently and came to the same conclusion I had.  The theme is fabulous. If we want better meetings at our workplace, we must be ruthless about bad ones and unapologetic in refusing to participate.  We disagree with some of Pittampali's specifics, but that's OK.  Probably the author himself would be open to our views... just don't invite him to a meeting to discuss it!

Meetings matter.  So many of us spend so much of our time at work in meetings with others - usually unhappily and unproductively. Written in the form of a memo to work colleagues, Read This Before Our Next Meeting is one man's plea for a break already.  He describes the culture he wants to live in, one where everyone respects the time of others and doesn't waste it in poorly-designed, poorly-conducted meetings that are not truly needed.  He suggests seven standards for a "modern meeting."

1) Meet only to support a decision that has already been made.
2) Move fast. End of schedule.
3) Limit the number of attendees.
4) Reject the unprepared.
5) Produce committed action plans.
6) Refuse to be informational. Read the memo, it's mandatory.
7) Work with brainstorms, not against them.

He explains each standard in a fun and cogent style, his frustration with current reality oozing through every sentence. I certainly feel his pain - so I laughed out loud in several places.  Still, it's not OK to call people to a meeting to endorse a decision that has already been made.  When done well, meetings can have a strengthening effect on teams. People want to help shape important decisions.  A good leader will bring them to the table with a clear structure for the discussion, and will guide the group toward a decision in a efficient manner. If, however, the issue is pre-decided, few will share their true views in the meeting. That harms cohesiveness.  It may make for a better meeting, but the ultimate work product will be diminished. 

So this little book is fun, but doesn't really offer a solution most of us could get our teams to adopt.  For that, we need Patrick Lencioni's Death by Meeting. (More on that next week!) 





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