He Tied 200 Chairs Together So Nobody Could Skip the Meeting
Founder Michael Ovitz gave every employee 30 seconds and no pass, and once promoted a mailroom worker on the spot.
David Senra · Founder of CAA Michael Ovitz: "I Just Knew I Was Going to Outwork Every One of Them"Every 90 days, at company retreats, Michael Ovitz, the founder of the Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency, had 200 people sit in a circle or oval with their chairs tied together and touching.
Ovitz said, "There was no way out of the circle or oval." To leave, someone had to push a chair back and open a hole everyone could see. That was intentional.
Ovitz ran the meeting himself, and he said "everybody had 30 seconds to pitch an idea." No one could pass. The rule forced ideas from everyone, down to the mailroom.
His thesis was simple: he would take an idea from anybody. He said no idea was too dumb because a bad idea could stimulate a good one, and he especially wanted new thinking from young employees while older employees added their wisdom.
As the agency grew, he said, the ring stretched longer because a round shape no longer fit. Every chair still had to touch. Ovitz sat in the ring, watched for people who said nothing, called on them, and coaxed them to talk. Some people were upset, he said, but everyone came around and thanked him for pushing them.
The system carried a second lesson. Ovitz said, "people need to learn how to communicate in groups, but the people that run those groups have to learn how to listen and learn how to get ideas from people." Every senior executive was in the circle, sitting with everyone else.
Ovitz said some of his greatest ideas were stolen or appropriated from other people. He admired Pablo Picasso, the artist and one of his great collecting passions, for the same habit, turning a pair of bicycle handlebars welded to a seat into a bull's horns.
In one meeting, a mailroom employee pitched an idea about cable television. Ovitz said, "We promoted him on the spot to Asia," adding, "It was that good."
Questions people ask
What is CAA?
CAA is the Hollywood talent agency Ovitz co-founded after working at the William Morris Agency. It represents actors, directors, writers, and others, and it grew by bringing talent together for films and television shows.
Why make everyone speak for only 30 seconds?
Ovitz wanted ideas from young staff and wisdom from older staff, and he said a bad idea could lead to a good one. A short turn with no passing gives every person a chance to speak.
Do other companies use a version of this?
Meeting designers often use circles, time limits, and no-opt-out rules to create the same pressure without rope. The techniques include round-robin check-ins, silent writing before discussion, and having a facilitator call on people who have not spoken, all meant to stop a few loud voices from dominating.