If you ever find yourself in a meeting with Jeff Bezos, don’t expect the Amazon founder to speak up first. Instead, Bezos flips the traditional meeting hierarchy, instructing participants to speak in reverse order of seniority, starting with the most junior person. As one of the senior-most individuals in the room, Bezos usually reserves his comments for the very end. This approach, he explained at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, helps prevent "group think" and ensures that everyone’s opinions are heard before his own influence can shape the discussion.
Bezos believes this method encourages honest, open dialogue instead of a roomful of people simply agreeing with the boss. He only intervenes during meetings when he has a strong, unwavering opinion on the matter at hand, which, he admitted, is a rare occurrence. "I’m actually very easy to influence," Bezos said, "but a couple percent of the time, no force in the world can move me because I’m so sure of something."
The 64-year-old, who stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 and now serves as its executive chairman, described his ideal meeting as "messy," meaning a session filled with debate and back-and-forth that often runs past the scheduled time. In fact, Bezos views meetings that run late as a sign of success, as they indicate deep, productive conversations. "Most of the meetings that are useful," he noted, "we hand out six-page memos, we do a half-hour study hall [where] we read them, then we have a messy discussion." Bezos is skeptical if a meeting isn’t messy, as it usually means the discussion isn’t engaging enough.
Revolutionizing Amazon’s Approach to Meetings
In a 2018 speech, Bezos called the shift in Amazon’s meeting culture "probably the smartest thing we ever did." The change began with eliminating PowerPoint presentations and replacing them with detailed, six-page memos, which are distributed ahead of time. Attendees spend 30 minutes reading the memo in silence, ensuring they’re fully prepared for the discussion. Only then does the group share their thoughts before Bezos speaks.
Bezos explained that this reading period provides essential context, ensuring everyone actually reads the material before the meeting. "Executives will bluff their way through meetings as if they’ve read the memo, because we’re busy," he acknowledged. The silent reading time, he said, sets the stage for more focused and thoughtful conversation.
While Bezos appreciates the value of spontaneous, wide-ranging discussions, the memo ensures that the meeting doesn’t lose focus and wander too far off-topic. His girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, who runs the aerial filming company Black Ops Aviation, told the *Wall Street Journal* that while meetings with Bezos are often meandering, the memos help keep the conversation grounded.
Though Bezos’s meetings may occasionally run late due to the engaging conversations, he typically aims to keep them under an hour, Sanchez added. Research shows that long meetings, whether they’re hour-long marathons or back-to-back short sessions, can increase stress levels and detract from productivity.
Bezos’s approach has gained favor among other tech leaders as well. Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter (now X), also encourages a similar practice, where attendees read notes from a shared Google Doc for 10 minutes before a meeting begins. This practice, Dorsey said in a 2018 tweet, helps align everyone’s understanding, fosters critical thinking, and accelerates decision-making.
