Empty Chair

Jeff Bezos is one of the best decision-makers in business. He is also not shy in sharing his thoughts and ideas on how to sharpen your decision-making processes.

One of the creative ways to improve decisions in the early days at Amazon was to introduce the 'Empty Chair' into all meetings.

The chair was symbolic and represented the customers voice, so they always had it in the room when making decisions. Instead of colleagues getting lost in the day-to-day or minutiae of their own work, the chair was a visual representation of what should really matter.

I have seen this tactic deployed personally but in an adapted way. It is a good way of introducing a different voice into your meetings. The empty chair can be someone from a different part of the business who might find it useful to contribute a fresh perspective whilst simultaneously deepening their own insight into the inner workings of the decision-making structure.

Either way, if you use it like the original concept (Bezos method) or the adapted variation, it should have a positive impact on committee decision-making.

Have you ever used this technique? Did it help? If you haven't used it, would it be something to consider?