5 new methods to optimize your meetings – Roland Massenet

To guide us on this strategic theme, we had the immense pleasure of welcoming Roland Massenet, founder and CEO of Incenteev and an expert in performance management. Faced with the alarming observation that 71% of managers consider their meetings unproductive, he reveals five revolutionary methods for transforming our meetings into real performance accelerators.

The hidden cost of meetings: €100 million lost

Roland begins with a stark diagnosis: a one-hour meeting with five participants costs €500, a calculation based on an average salary of €50,000 and an employer cost of three times the gross salary. “For €500, what else could we do? Is this meeting really worth the investment?”

The problem is compounded by “Meeting Recovery Syndrome,” identified by researcher Joseph Allen: after each meeting, it takes an employee an average of 17 minutes to regain focus. This “time pollution” exponentially multiplies the real cost of ineffective meetings.

The Amazon revolution: eliminating to better unite

Roland takes inspiration from Jean-Charles Samuelian, co-founder of Alan, who made a radical decision: to eliminate meetings. “Meetings weren’t organized, structured, or prepared enough. There were no minutes, so decisions weren’t documented.”

This approach reveals a fundamental principle: no meeting is better than a bad meeting. Alan’s written culture has enabled exceptional growth by eliminating the time-wasting effects of ineffective meetings.

Method 1: Rethink the format with “stand-up meetings”

Roland revolutionizes the traditional approach by introducing three formats:

• Sit-down meetings are held in 80% of cases, promoting creativity and in-depth discussions.

• Daily stand-ups: “We’re standing up precisely to keep the meeting short.” Each participant answers three questions: What did I do yesterday? What are my priorities today? What do I need?

• Walking meetings for one-on-ones, inspired by Oracle’s David Haynes: “Walking side by side, the conversation is more peer-to-peer, less hierarchical.” This approach relaxes exchanges and encourages in-depth discussions.

Method 2: The ABCs of the meeting

Roland develops a revolutionary framework to define the objective of each meeting:

• A for Learn: information transmission, training, interactive quizzes with tools like Kahoot

• B for Brainstorm: collaborative idea generation with tools like Klaxon

• C for Coordinate: Synchronizing teams and projects

• D for Decide: arbitration between several alternatives

“Just asking yourself the question: what are the ABCDs of this meeting? helps you focus your attention and identify the right tools.”

Method 3: Agenda in questions rather than in subjects

A simple but powerful innovation: frame each agenda item as a question rather than a topic.

Transformed example: instead of “CRM deployment update”, ask the question “What is the bottleneck in the CRM project?”

This approach has two major advantages: checking whether the meeting can answer the question and knowing precisely whether the meeting was a success at the end.

Method 4: Steve Jobs’ Contribution Rule

Roland quotes the Apple founder and his dreaded question: “How will you contribute to this meeting?” If the answer wasn’t satisfactory, Jobs would politely release the person.

This discipline forces each participant to justify their presence and honors the time of others. “If it’s just to be in the know, I probably don’t have any business doing it.”

Method 5: IDEA Note Taking

Roland develops a structured framework for effective reporting:

• I for Information: key elements to disseminate or keep

• D for Decision: explicit choices made during the meeting

• E for Explanation: why these decisions were made (crucial for those absent)

• A for Action: action plan with identified managers

“It’s very important to have an explanation of why, because often people who are absent come and challenge decisions due to a lack of context.”

The Jeff Bezos Principle: Pre-Reading

Roland takes inspiration from the Amazon founder, who imposes a simple rule: each meeting begins with the reading of a one-page memo written by the organizer. “We take five minutes to ensure that all participants are aligned on their knowledge of the topic and the issues at stake.”

This requirement for preparation radically transforms the quality of exchanges and the effectiveness of decisions.

ROTI: measuring efficiency in real time

Roland concludes with a continuous improvement ritual: ROTI (Return On Time Invested). At the end of each meeting, each participant gives a thumbs-up according to their satisfaction and explains in one sentence how to improve next time.

This habit “forces everyone to express themselves on the quality of the meeting” and maintains the positive pressure on permanent optimization.

In a nutshell…

• The real cost of meetings includes direct time, recovery time, and opportunity cost – financial discipline transforms the approach
• The ABCD and the question agenda allow you to focus objectives and measure success precisely.
• IDEA’s innovative formats and note-taking maximize engagement and decision-making follow-up

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