Thread by @jasoncrawford

When you have a doc to review in a meeting, you should do a really counter-intuitive thing:

DON'T send it out beforehand.

Instead, share the doc at the *beginning* of the meeting and have everyone read it, silently, *in the meeting*.

I got used to this at Amazon. It is the secret ingredient added to the famous narrative process.

I can hear all your objections now:

• What a waste of time! You should read the doc BEFORE the meeting!
• How awkward! Sitting there in silence…
• Etc.

Some of these are real, some are just the discomfort of the new. But the pros outweigh all the cons:

1. Most importantly, it means that everyone *definitely* read the doc.

The biggest problem with the standard process is when people haven't read the doc, or only skimmed it. Then you waste time summarizing it, or worse, they have the discussion without context.

2. The doc is fresh on everyone's mind.

With the standard process, many people read the doc a day or two prior to the meeting.

3. It's obvious what the deadline is for having the doc ready: the start of the meeting. There's no negotiation.

With the standard process, it may be unclear how much time to give people to read the doc in advance (3 days for busy execs?!), and you end up negotiating it.

4. You minimize the time from prep to discussion/decision. If the doc can be done by Weds, then you can have the meeting on Weds.

With the standard process, you have to have the meeting Thurs or Fri to give people time to read.

Objection: isn't it more efficient to read beforehand, and not waste time in the meeting reading?

Answer: Not really. You have to take the time anyway. Why not calendar it?

Objection: people read at different speeds. The faster readers are wasting time.

Answer: Only a few minutes. This doesn't really matter.

Note: At Amazon, Bezos was sometimes the *last* person to finish. If you got done early, maybe you should slow down and read more carefully.

Objection: the person who wrote the doc doesn't have to read it! Surely *they* are wasting their time.

Answer: This also turns out not to matter much. Bring your laptop and do email while you're waiting.

Now, there are a couple of pitfalls to watch out for:

Some people talk during the reading time, especially if they read the doc beforehand. This is distracting and makes it hard for others to read.

Set a cultural norm against this. Also it helps to *not* share the doc early, even if it's ready. That keeps everyone busy reading.

Some people who are used to the traditional slideshow presentation format will recap what they wrote, right after everyone is done reading it.

Train yourself and others not to do this. Everyone just read the doc! Maximize your time by diving right into discussion.

Happy silent reading!

PS: Another objection I'm getting now: It's better to let people read the doc well in advance so you get deeper thoughts instead of gut reactions.

Answer: If people have deep thoughts days later, they can always follow up with you then. This doesn't outweigh the benefits.

PPS: This is not universal advice. I laid out the reasons and the context. If the assumptions, and the mechanism, don't fit your situation, then don't use it! It's a tool, not a dogma.

Some more clarifications based on comments/feedback:

This may not work for all documents/meetings. I said it in the context of business documents such as product specs, tech designs, project updates, strategic plans, engineering postmortems, candidate feedback, etc.

Maybe it doesn't work in academia. I don't know.

There's probably a length limitation on the document. I can see reading up to 30 minutes, maybe 45 max. Longer than that, this probably doesn't work well. And if the doc takes 30 minutes to read I would schedule 90 total for the meeting.

This process may not work for all people. Some people, such as those with dyslexia, may need extra time to read. If that applies to your team, maybe do a different process. The goal is to get the best thinking and discussion from everyone.

In any case, you *do* have to allow adequate time to read, which is often more than people feel comfortable with. You can't rush, and you need silence.

The most senior person in the room should consider deliberately taking the longest, to erase any stigma around taking your time

But most importantly, this process is *not* driven by lack of respect for colleagues. I would argue it is based, among other things, on respect for the demands of a busy schedule. And again, the goal is to get the best thinking and discussion from everyone.

A decent compromise to many of the objections is to send the doc ahead of time *and* also allow time in meeting to read. People who read ahead of time can use the time in meeting to refresh their memories. That gets you most of the benefits. You have to fight for silence though

To reiterate, if you don't allow enough time and no one can do more than skim the document, that is WORSE than the standard process. Better to send the doc ahead of time than to rush. You MUST leave adequate time for careful reading.

Got a variety of reactions to this one

A word of advice on implementation: if you want to do this with your team, don't spring it on them at the beginning of a meeting. It's too weird, counter-intuitive and awkward. Get agreement beforehand so that everyone knows what to expect going in.