Any one for Pizza?

Have you heard about Amazon's 2 pizza rule for business meetings? Imagine being invited somewhere for a meal. On arrival you see there are loads of people there and only two large pizza's to feed everyone. You leave, hungry, wishing you hadn't attended and wondering the point of going in the first place.

?The 2-pizza rule is simple. For any meeting you should be able to feed everybody with 2 pizza's, that’s a max of 6-8 people. It is a wonderful metaphor that explains how some people may feel after larger meetings. This is especially true when we are working remotely where engagement and attention is even hard to hold then in person.

?The advantage of larger groups is a chance for inclusion, a broader range of opinions and a chance to represent different parts of the business. However, smaller groups can encourage deeper debate, faster decision making and agility.

?eCommerce teams are becoming larger as each month passes. In all parts of the business, projects and workstreams are becoming more-cross functional in their nature. As a consequence meetings become larger and the much talked about agility becomes more elusive. I am now a creator of meetings and some times these are larger then 8 people. I am very conscious of people's time, my goal is to run meetings that make a difference to the business.

There are no perfect meetings and you cant please all the people all the time, but below are some features that help make meetings worthwhile:

The basics

• Never force anyone to attend, in fact encourage people to make sure they are needed and give people the chance to opt out when the subjects allow by marking them as 'optional'.
• Have a clear agenda. Be realistic in how much you can achieve in the allotted time and make sure people are aware of the specific outcomes/decisions desired.
• The meeting moderator should keep people on topic and as best as possible keep to time. If people raise concerns, take note and follow up.
• Give people a voice - Gently invite participation from quieter members
• Follow-up with minutes and actions
• For recurring meetings, check in as a group or individually. Use surveys to track progress.
• Review agendas, engagement and participants regularly - the world moves fast so you cannot assume that what worked 3 months ago still works now

?A more direct approach

• ?Maximise discussion and limit presenting. I find 50% presenting and 50% discussion is a good mix. Send a pre-read if needed (I never got on with the Amazon 6-pager)
• Uninvite people - If plans were built and decisions taken with 6 people then 6 is probably all you need. However, if your team is now 20, all 20 probably aren't needed.
• Check for engagement - Pay attention to all participants, especially those not contributing. Discretely find out why and what you can do to help.
• Move forward - Last but not least, if in doubt move forward. For difficult decisions there is a temptation to ask for more information. This means standing still. In a fast moving world this can be a bigger mistake then moving in the wrong direction. Avoid delaying making tough decisions and bias towards testing and trialing

It is time to put ego's and presenteeism aside. Run meetings where people come, not because they have to, but because they want to.