Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable

by Patrick Lencioni
Jossey-Bass, 2004

    This book is an entertaining and yet educating view of one of the most frequent activities of leaders in organizations:  the dreaded meeting.  It begins with an illustrative story of “Yip Software” and its acquisition by “Playsoft” involving a newcomer’s (Will) novel idea to structure meetings based on an analogy to film and TV acquaints the reader with the basic ideas proposed.  For those who don’t want to read the fictional case study (although I recommend it, and it’s an easy read), the model is presented by itself in the second part of the book.  Many basics of leadership competence are addressed in a light-hearted format, including the difficulties of decisions regarding corporate structure (mergers), ethical versus bottom-line profit organizational missions, and the political climate common to the corporate world, regardless of the size of the business.

    Some of the competencies below are best illustrated by Will (e.g. Challenging the Status Quo, Persistence, Optimism, Persuading); others are exemplified more by Casey (e.g. Engaging in Non-Work Related Interests, Technological Savvy, Managing Personnel Policies).

    For example, Will challenges the status quo when Will notices that no one prepares for the weekly meetings and realizes that the status quo for a “successful” meeting is simply finishing in the time allotted, he announces in a meeting: “these meetings are amazing.  You spend more time getting less done and avoiding anything remotely interesting…”  This brave remark is the impetus needed to change the meeting format and improve the quality of overall work performance at “Yip” by changing the meeting structure.  Will exemplifies the persuading competency when he convinces Casey to try out the new meeting format he suggests.

    The basic premise for “Yip Software” came from Casey’s engaging in non-work related interests.  His first career as a professional golf player provided a creative way of looking at a separate field:  computer games.  He utilized the skills and knowledge obtained from this non-work interest when he left the golfing profession to make the most realistic golf computer game in existence.

    These are just a few specific examples of the relevant competencies (listed below); there are many more.  In addition to these specific examples with the primary characters, most competencies are present in the majority of the characters, including more secondary characters like Connor, Michelle (members of the executive team), and even J.T. (of “Playsoft” notoriety) or in the overarching situation, so that several examples of each competencies are given from differing viewpoints.

 Competencies Addressed: 

~ Contributed by Kirsten Gobeski

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