Rating: 
Summary: Good anecdotal advice, but targeted at upper management
Review: Both the format and the content of this book made it highly enjoyable. Normally, even reading about meetings is enough to put me to sleep, but this book has a great running story about introducing change to the meetings of an executive team. By the end of the book, the author has some excellent specific tips on the types of meetings to call, how often to call them, and what to expect to get from them. As he points out, the impact meeting effectiveness has on team morale can't be overstated.The only thing I might ding the book on is that it's really about the meetings that high-level folks have, and the practical advice is somewhat less applicable to minion-type people. For instance, while the different types of meetings make sense, the frequencies don't -- I would argue that his "quarterly off-site reviews" are better translated as "end of milestone reviews" the "monthly strategic"s are completely transformed because people at a lower level usually only own a few issues at a given time, so it makes more sense for all of those meetings to be ad-hoc and around closing a single topic rather than being regular and on the most important bubbled-up topics of the day. Still, a very valuable book and well worth an afternoon's read, even by low-level developer types like myself.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Continuing the current hot trend of couching business counsel in fables, author Patrick Lencioni takes on the ogre of the deadly dull meeting and through story and advice, wrestles it to the ground. The book is in large part about boring meetings and the author manages to reproduce their tone exactly. The protagonists are the boss, Casey, and an employee named Will who eventually loses his temper in the face of one more stifling, useless meeting. The author plants lessons about meetings throughout the story, revealed by the characters' experiences. However, after the fable comes an undiluted section of advice: about 40 pages of straightforward, expository prose about how to have more effective, engaging meetings. If you want useful workday advice and prefer to save fairytales - even those with built-in lessons - for bedtime, start there. We welcome this solid guidance on how to make meetings work better.
Rating:
Summary: to conflict, or not to conflict?
Review: for a business management book, this one is pretty good. the fable is fairly interesting and the book is a fairly quick read. what makes this a 4 star book though is the concept of instilling conflict into meetings. too many executives feel the team concept requires acquiescence by the members. stay in your silo and nod approval. the importance of conflict not only adds interest to meetings, it creates open discussion and the exchange of different ideas and perspectives. it fosters the creative thought process. it challenges all members to problem solve. it requires the leader to support his position and suffer the pangs of self doubt. in the end you end up with a better decision--not a unanimous one. i am a believer that if you surround yourself with people who will only tell you what you want to hear, you don't need them. you need people who will challenge you to test your ideas and create different ones. if handled properly, your meetings won't just be more interesting, your decisions will be better! that's the message of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Death by Meeting
Review: I believe this book is meant for the harried executive who is too busy to read anything more substantial. The fable slant to the book makes it approachable. And at 255 pages, you could read it in a couple of hours. Admittedly, a typical CEO listening to a temporary assistant from the start, and the premise that the future of the CEO's job will be based on one meeting is a bit over the top, but in any event, the book's main purpose is to shed light on corporate realities, not to provide the Holy Grail of effective meetings. Scores of employees hate meetings because they're ineffective. No big idea there. One of the reasons people suffer horrible meetings is because they don't realize they're having ineffective meetings, they simply put up with them. And if they do realize they're wasting their time, they think it'll take too much time to fix. Why is there no conflict in meetings? Everyone wants to make sure they're politically correct. That's where the passion is -- hidden behind the PC veneer. While this book is not a handbook or a how-to, the effectiveness of his words lies in the implementation which happens in real-time (at individual companies), not at the theory level presented within the book's pages. To sum, this book is an enjoyable read, and it's commonsense when you look at it. However, if you're looking for the silver bullet, keep looking.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable and Inspiring
Review: I found this book very inspiring. The fable style really makes reading enjoyable. Simple example in daily life.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh! The worst
Review: I have read all of Lencionni's other books and this one is a real disappointment. I didn't believe a single second of it. Please have the major character come to our company; he would be lynched in a minute.
Rating:
Summary: Death by Meeting
Review: I read this book skeptically -- but discovered it was really useful besides being totally well written and entertaining. I think the way the author presents this picture is simple - but not simplistic -- much like the author's other books. Most people do work in situations where there are certainly personality issues (which he tackles in the Teams book) but even with those under control meetings themselves are sorely lacking in tapping into the best people have to offer. This book helps you really get at this. Its great -- and from my experience definitely needed.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Much like "The Goal"
Review: If you are a fan of "The Goal" then you might enjoy this quick read. Designed to solve a pressing business problem of bad meetings, "Death by Meeting" takes you thru a fictional scenario of how to make meetings in any organization better. Unfortunantly this book does not state that we should not have meeting (which I think we all hope for), instead Patrick provides insight into how to make meeting more effective and yes, fun. While the story can be a little over the top, with the film-student providing direction to the executive staff on how to run meetings, it all comes together in the last twenty pages on how to run effective meetings. If you are really short on time, read the last chapter first, and go back to the story if you choose, otherwise dive right in, and you will find that you can read the whole book in less than two hours. This is one book that is worth buying used, because it is such a quick read.
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Summary: A Framework To Build On for Fixing the Bad Meeting Dilemna
Review: If you dwell in the all too common world of unproductive meetings -- which I'd hazard to guess is at least a 50/50 chance -- this book is well worth a look. Consistent with his "business fable" style, Lencioni makes "Death by Meeting" a quick read with some easy to grasp but powerful principles as the payoff. How many time's have you heard the term, "I can't get anything done because I'm always in meetings." Sounds logical right? Not so, says Lencioni. He precedes to show us through his fable that what's needed is a paradigm shift on how we think about meetings. Meetings aren't problems, they are opporturnities. Meetings don't have to be a death walk, they can inspire, challenge, and bring problems out in the open to be wrestled to the ground and resolved. In my view, the power of Lencioni's principles are in their simplicity. How many times have you waded through a business book and found yourself inspired only to forget half the of 20 "principles" and so called recipes for success. Lencioni's principles are simple enough that they are both easily grasped and memorable. The challenge for readers of "Death by Meeting" teachings is that Lencioni provides little beyond the basic framework. He gives few suggestions for implementation, and does not warn of pitfalls or discuss the implications of company culture and barriers that might arise. His message is in affect, here's the framework -- now get to it. That's a tough pill to swallow for readers who find very few similarities between the company and the leaders depicted in the story and their own situation. But I'd argue that this isn't a valid excuse to let the book gather dust on the shelf. Those who go forward boldly may soon find that they'll create their own fable with a happy ending.
Rating:
Summary: Death By Meeting
Review: Lencioni has done it again. He truly has a gift to tell stories and this fable captures your attention from beginning to end. Executives seem to be comfortable with meetings that lack luster, context and clarity -- no wonder smart people make horrible decisions at times. When something is so wildly broken, the only way to fix it is a whole new approach - which Lencioni provides in his meetings model outlined in the second part of the book. Like his previous book, this one will be a best-seller for a long, long time (I did just notice it appeared on the BusinessWeek Best-seller list already).
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