Jeff Bezos Describes Amazon's Unique Approach to Meetings and the 6-Page Narrative Document

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Meetings at Amazon start with a six-page narratively structured memo, read in silence for 30 minutes before discussion. This approach ensures everyone is on the same page and leads to an elevated discussion. Unlike PowerPoint presentations that are sales tools, memos focus on truth-seeking. It takes about two weeks to write a good memo, forcing the author to put their best thinking forward. The memo format with complete sentences and narrative structure prevents sloppy thinking. The discussions that follow the memo are messy, aimed at solving hard problems. Weekly business reviews, on the other hand, are for incremental improvements and follow a more efficient structure looking at the same metrics each time.

Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin.

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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