Jeff Bezos On How Mind Wandering Promotes Innovation At Work: 'I Like Messy Meetings'

Amazon and Blue Origin’s founder, Jeff Bezos, recently shared his unusual method for boosting productivity. During meetings, he let his mind wander freely. Bezos spoke about the same on the Lex Fridman Podcast and revealed that rather than following strict schedules and agendas, the business tycoon believes in being flexible, as it generates spontaneous ideas and creativity. Describing this as a “messy meeting" process, where participants are encouraged to share ideas more freely, regardless of time limitations. Bezos personally values letting his mind wander to figure out his ideas thoroughly before presenting them. This process ensures that ideas undergo rigorous scrutiny. By involving more people in the process, Bezos believes ideas become enjoyable, leading to innovative solutions.

He said, “I’m not as productive as you might think I am. I mean, because I do believe in wandering and I sort of I, you know, I move pretty slowly in the first couple of hours. When I sit down to work on a problem, I know I don’t know where I’m going. The reality is we may have to wander for a long time and I do like group invention. I think there’s certainly nothing more fun than sitting at a whiteboard with, you know, a group of smart people and spitballing and coming up with new ideas and objections to those ideas and then solutions to the objections."

“I don’t keep to a strict schedule. Like my meetings often go longer than I plan for them to because I believe in wandering. My perfect meeting starts with a crisp document. I like crisp documents and messy meetings. And so the meeting is about asking questions that nobody knows the answer to and trying to like wander your way to a solution. And because like when that happens just right, it makes all the other meetings worthwhile. It feels good. It has a kind of beauty to it," Jeff Bezos added.

Bezos explained that when allowing his mind to wander, he understands promising ideas. When he personally identifies what he believes to be a good idea and it survives his initial assessment, he prepares to share it with others. However, he feels that new ideas have chances of facing objections at the beginning. Therefore, he conducts discussions by acknowledging the challenges and encourages collaboration to improve the concept further. He understands that developing new ideas requires dedication and effort from everyone involved.