You do not like meetings work? You’re not alone. Steve Jobs despised them. He was known to cancel meetings if he didn’t see a clear objective. I preferred teleworking, short meetings, lasting around 10 minutes and focused on specific objectives. And it was so for one simple reason: he hated this process of talking and talking without reaching a clear conclusion. A “damn distraction for engineers,” as he repeatedly pointed out.
This maxim that he explained throughout his career: concerned about the productivity and efficiency of the company, he went so far as to say that having fewer people working in the company was a clear advantage in maintaining quality over quantity. However, Apple has never stopped extending its arms, producing and selling more iPhones each year and presenting more products, both in its range of hardware and services (iCloud, Apple TV+, Apple Music Classical…) .
Meetings kill creativity
Meeting day, wasted day. It is a message that has penetrated and which, unfortunately, is supported by real figures: meetings, on too many occasions, they are unproductive. We can therefore understand that Steve Jobs’ contempt for them was not a pose, but a real combative act.
In the biographical novel “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, on page 434, a 1997 interview with BusinessWeek is glossed over in which Jobs makes his thoughts on business meetings very clear:
“Meetings are one of the worst things in business today. They are terrible. Meetings interrupt work, kill momentum, kill creativity. And there are hours and hours of wasted time. »
Thursday, day without work meetings
That they “kill creativity” is crucial in a business where creative flow is essential to staying ahead of competitors. In order to avoid this situation, he designed a model. Here is the letter he sent internally:
Our company is built on the principle that a few people can make a killer product if they are not limited by:
- a) having to convince a larger organization of what they know is right
- b) if they can spend their personal time on design, marketing or other things, instead of managing others to do those tasks less well.
Note the sardonic tone and a certain resentment towards the scale of power – or directly this veiled blow against the ignominious sensation of having to deal with investors and profiles who do not know “the art of creation”. So to speak, the letter does not only remain superficial and proposes the following:
To remain faithful to this principle, I propose the following two ideas:
- We all need time to work individually without interruption. Meetings (with suppliers, interviews, etc.) reduce our individual time and the productivity of our engineers is affected. I propose that we set aside every Thursday as a day without meetings of any kind. Thursday is our day, a day when we metaphorically close the doors to the outside world and work quietly individually.
- As we scale down our staffing needs (and therefore our budgets), I encourage you to remember that there is a very fine line that, when crossed in staff growth, turns them into managers rather than contributors or team leaders. I believe that if we become managers instead of “doers,” our schedule and the “greatness” of our product will suffer. Let’s not let this happen! It’s better to have fewer people, even if it means doing less. Let’s build our business slowly and carefully.
With Jobs’ usual sarcasm, the letter ended with “let’s discuss these two ideas at our staff meeting tomorrow.” It is relevant to pay attention to tone and form, such as “Let’s not let this happen!” so combative. But even more in some ideas that would continue his entire career. Ideas I would eventually model in the following format, as reported by Media Inc:
- Small meetings 3 to 5 people. If there are too many people, misunderstandings, side conversations and chaos will ensue.
- Short agenda with no more than 3 items on the agenda. Three points are better than five if you close each point. The one that covers a lot…
- Short meetings, no more than 30 minutes and with a clear structure.
An older version of this article was originally published on 05/20/2023.
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