The Legendary Amazon Approach to Meetings

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Amazon and Blue Origin have an unusual approach to meetings by starting with a six-page narratively structured memo, allowing a 30-minute silent reading session, followed by a discussion. This approach ensures all participants are on the same page and leads to elevated discussions. This method eliminates the use of PowerPoint presentations and encourages truth-seeking rather than persuasion. The author of the memo has to be vulnerable, putting forth their best thinking in a comprehensive manner, which in turn saves time and prevents hiding sloppy thinking. While most meetings aim to solve hard problems, business review meetings are for incremental improvement and are conducted efficiently with a focus on specific metrics.

Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin.

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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/jeff-bezos-transcript

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(08:53) – Texas ranch and childhood
(12:31) – Space exploration and rocket engineering
(25:05) – Physics
(34:39) – New Glenn rocket
(1:17:28) – Lunar program
(1:27:24) – Amazon
(1:44:45) – Principles
(2:03:25) – Productivity
(2:14:03) – Future of humanity