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A review by dashtaisen
Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business by Patrick Lencioni
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
1.5
The “Model” section at the end of the book had some useful high-level observations about meetings in general: have different kinds of meetings with specific purposes, not all meetings need to have an agenda, some meetings need to be quite long, and conflict is important and necessary.
Handling conflict in a heathy and productive way is the most important part of the book, and yet the author says hardly anything about it. Aside from the leader reassuring the team that this conflict is important. The author admits that this is paternalistic, but doesn’t offer suggestions. I very much worry about what will happen to folks from underrepresented backgrounds when an inexperienced facilitator asks the team to just “let ‘er rip” during a meeting.
The fable was a slog. The introduction was confusing — it seemed for a little while that author was claiming that work/life balance is bad. Fortunately this doesn’t turn out to be a key suggestion for the book, although I’m still left wondering if the author believes this. And using the act of someone with OCD and Tourette’s going off their meds as a plot device was lazy, ineffective, and honestly pretty cruel.
Handling conflict in a heathy and productive way is the most important part of the book, and yet the author says hardly anything about it. Aside from the leader reassuring the team that this conflict is important. The author admits that this is paternalistic, but doesn’t offer suggestions. I very much worry about what will happen to folks from underrepresented backgrounds when an inexperienced facilitator asks the team to just “let ‘er rip” during a meeting.
The fable was a slog. The introduction was confusing — it seemed for a little while that author was claiming that work/life balance is bad. Fortunately this doesn’t turn out to be a key suggestion for the book, although I’m still left wondering if the author believes this. And using the act of someone with OCD and Tourette’s going off their meds as a plot device was lazy, ineffective, and honestly pretty cruel.