The world's most successful companies have radically different approaches to meetings. Amazon bans PowerPoint and starts with silent reading. Apple assigns a DRI (Directly Responsible Individual) to every meeting. Shopify displays real-time meeting costs on screens. These aren't random quirks—they're deliberate systems designed to make meetings dramatically more effective.

After studying meeting practices at top companies and analyzing data from 2,000+ meetings, we've identified the best practices that any company can adopt. Here's what actually works.

Amazon: The "Two Pizza Rule" and Silent Reading

Practice #1: The Two Pizza Rule

Jeff Bezos famously instituted the "two pizza rule": if a team can't be fed with two pizzas, it's too large. This applies to meetings too. If you need more than two pizzas to feed everyone in your meeting (roughly 8-10 people), the meeting is too big.

How to implement:

• Set a hard limit of 8 people for decision-making meetings
• If more people need to be informed, send notes afterward instead
• For larger meetings (all-hands, etc.), make them purely informational with Q&A
• Challenge meeting organizers: "Do all 15 people really need to be here?"

Practice #2: Silent Reading Time

Amazon meetings start with everyone silently reading a 6-page memo for 15-30 minutes. No PowerPoint presentations, no pre-reading homework. Everyone reads together, then discusses.

Why this works:

• Ensures everyone actually reads the material (instead of saying "I didn't have time to read the pre-work")
• Creates a shared context for discussion
• Forces ideas to be written clearly and completely
• Eliminates time wasted on presentations that could have been documents

How to implement:

1. Require a written memo (2-6 pages) for any important meeting
2. Schedule 60 minutes but plan for 15-20 minutes of silent reading first
3. No laptops, no phones during reading time—everyone reads
4. Discussion starts only after everyone has finished reading
5. Ban PowerPoint for strategic meetings (data meetings can still use slides)

Apple: The DRI System

Practice #3: Directly Responsible Individual (DRI)

Apple assigns a single Directly Responsible Individual to every meeting, project, and decision. The DRI is the person whose name appears next to the item. They're accountable for outcomes, even if they're not the most senior person in the room.

How to implement:

1. Every meeting must have a DRI listed in the calendar invite
2. The DRI owns the agenda, facilitates the meeting, and ensures outcomes
3. For every decision point, explicitly name the DRI who will make the call
4. Others can provide input, but the DRI decides
5. Make DRI assignments visible on project trackers and meeting notes

Shopify: Real-Time Cost Visibility

Practice #4: Display Meeting Costs on Screen

Shopify displays a live meeting cost calculator during meetings, showing the cost ticking up in real-time. A 10-person meeting might show "$127... $128... $129..." incrementing every few seconds.

Why this works:

• Makes the invisible visible—people suddenly realize meetings aren't free
• Creates natural urgency to stay on topic
• Encourages people to end meetings early when goals are achieved
• Discourages rambling and off-topic tangents

How to implement:

1. Include meeting costs in every calendar invite
2. For important meetings, display costs on screen using meeting.cash or similar tool
3. Start each meeting by stating the cost: "This hour costs $800, let's make it count"
4. Celebrate when teams end meetings early or reduce attendees
5. Track meeting costs as a key operational metric

Atlassian: "No Meeting Wednesdays"

Practice #5: Protected Focus Time

Atlassian instituted "No Meeting Wednesdays" company-wide. No internal meetings are allowed on Wednesdays, giving everyone an uninterrupted day for deep work.

Why this works:

• A single 8-hour uninterrupted block is worth more than four 2-hour fragments
• Deep work requires 2-4 hours of uninterrupted time to reach peak flow
• Meetings scattered through the week destroy calendar coherence
• Forces people to question whether meetings are really necessary

Results from companies implementing this:

• Employee productivity surveys show 20-30% improvement on meeting-free days
• Engineering velocity increases measurably on focus days
• Employee satisfaction with work-life balance improves
• Total meeting volume decreases (when you have less time, you're more selective)

How to implement:

1. Designate one day per week as meeting-free (Wednesday works well)
2. Make it company-wide so people can't just move meetings to others' calendars
3. Allow exceptions only for customer/external meetings or genuine emergencies
4. Protect morning hours (8am-12pm) as focus time if full days don't work
5. Block focus time on your calendar so it shows as busy

Google: The "Speedy Meetings" Default

Practice #6: End Meetings 5-10 Minutes Early

Google Calendar has a "speedy meetings" setting that automatically shortens meetings: 60 minutes becomes 50, 30 minutes becomes 25. This builds in buffer time between meetings.

Why this works:

• Gives people bathroom breaks and time to grab coffee between meetings
• Prevents back-to-back meetings from running over and creating cascade delays
• Forces meetings to be slightly tighter and more focused
• Reduces burnout from marathon meeting days

How to implement:

1. Enable "speedy meetings" in Google Calendar settings
2. Manually schedule meetings to end :25 or :55 past the hour
3. Start exactly on time, even if people are missing
4. End on time (or early), even if there's more to discuss
5. Schedule follow-ups rather than running over

GitLab: Handbook First, Async Default

Practice #7: Document Everything, Meet Only When Necessary

GitLab, a fully remote company, maintains an extensive handbook and defaults to async communication. They only have synchronous meetings when truly necessary.

Why this works:

• Written documentation is searchable and reusable; meetings disappear
• Async communication is 10x cheaper than synchronous meetings
• Works for global teams across timezones
• Creates institutional knowledge rather than tribal knowledge

How to implement:

1. Create a company wiki/handbook for all processes and decisions
2. Default to written communication (Slack, docs, email)
3. Before scheduling a meeting, ask: "Could this be async?"
4. Record important meetings and share notes for those who couldn't attend
5. Make documentation a core part of your culture, not an afterthought

Stripe: The "Email Me That" Rule

Practice #8: Demand Written Clarity

Stripe executives frequently respond to requests with "email me that." If someone can't clearly articulate their idea in writing, they're not ready for a meeting about it.

Why this works:

• Writing forces clarity—fuzzy thinking becomes obvious when written down
• Prevents meetings being used as a substitute for thinking
• Creates a written record of the proposal for reference
• Allows people to review on their own schedule
• Many issues resolve themselves when someone tries to write them clearly

How to implement:

1. Require written proposals or agendas before scheduling meetings
2. If someone wants a meeting but can't articulate why in writing, they're not ready
3. Start meetings by referencing the written doc everyone should have read
4. Train your team on clear writing—it's a core skill
5. Make "email me that" a acceptable response to meeting requests

Implementation Playbook: Adopting These Practices

You don't need to adopt all eight practices at once. Start with 2-3 that address your biggest meeting pain points:

If your meetings have too many people:

→ Start with Amazon's Two Pizza Rule. Immediately cut attendee lists.

If decisions take forever:

→ Implement Apple's DRI system. Clear decision rights accelerate everything.

If people don't value meeting time:

→ Use Shopify's cost visibility. Seeing "$500/hour" changes behavior instantly.

If people can't focus due to meeting fragmentation:

→ Create Atlassian's No Meeting days. Protected focus time is gold.

If meetings run over constantly:

→ Use Google's speedy meetings and be ruthless about ending on time.

Conclusion: Learn from the Best

The world's most successful companies didn't become efficient by accident. They built deliberate systems and cultural practices around meetings. Amazon limits size and requires written thinking. Apple creates clear accountability with DRIs. Shopify makes costs visible. Atlassian protects focus time.

These aren't complex or expensive practices—they're simple disciplines that any company can adopt. Pick 2-3 that resonate with your biggest challenges. Pilot them with a few teams. Measure the impact. Then roll them out more broadly.

Based on data from 2,000+ meetings, companies that implement even half of these practices see 30-40% improvements in meeting efficiency, decision speed, and employee satisfaction. The best part? Most of these practices cost nothing—they just require discipline and leadership commitment.