Six-page narrative memo
A written memo read silently at the start of the meeting, in place of slides
Instead of a slide deck, the person proposing something writes a memo of up to six pages in full sentences and paragraphs. The meeting opens with everyone reading it in silence, often for half an hour, then the discussion starts with the whole room holding the same context. Writing this way is slow for the author, and a good memo may go through days of drafts and colleagues poking holes in it. That is the point: the effort moves from the audience to the writer, and the arguments have to hold up without a presenter talking over the gaps.
Who backs it
Sorted by strength of stance
- Jeff BezosDoes it
Amazon and Blue Origin founder · Six-page memos and eight hours of sleep
Meetings at Amazon and Blue Origin open with a six-page narrative memo, then a silent study hall of about thirty minutes. Slides, he thinks, are built to persuade: easy for the author, hard for the audience. A memo, he thinks, does the reverse.
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #405 transcript: Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin“Meetings at Amazon and Blue Origin are unusual. … For 30 minutes, we sit there silently together in the meeting and read.”
Lex Fridman Podcast #405 transcript: Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin (opens in a new tab) · 14 Dec 2023
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