'Bad meetings' are essential, says CEO: You 'learn more' from them than the good ones

CNBC

17-07-2025

Neal Arthur doesn't mind having bad meetings at work. He actually treasures them, he says.
Arthur is the CEO of Portland, Oregon-based Wieden+Kennedy, an advertising agency known for slogans like Nike's "Just Do It" and Bud Light's "Dilly Dilly." At his workplace, meetings that seem negative on the surface are essential to creativity and professional growth, he said during a June 13 episode of LinkedIn's "This Is Working" video series.
When Arthur gathers employees after something goes wrong, a project doesn't land or a client is unhappy, he presents the negative feedback as an opportunity to think outside the box — instead of browbeating his team to get it right, he said.
"We're not afraid to have bad meetings ... we really value [them]" said Arthur. "If we're only having good meetings, it's because we're sharing things with you that you expected and we need the space to be able to share things with you that you didn't."Bad meetings aren't for pressuring employees to fix mistakes or appease an unhappy client, because such motivation tactics often backfire, Arthur said. Instead, they're for generating great ideas — instead of rushed or uninspired ones — to get out of a rut.
Say your team recently worked on a project for a client, for example, and they hated what you gave them. Telling your employees that they really dropped the ball and badgering them to get a new concept on your desk by day's end could result in safe, predictable ideas. Instead, using Arthur's approach, you might ask them to challenge themselves to pursue the craziest idea in the room, imagining what the project could look like without limits.
"I think [it's helpful] to remind each other that pressure doesn't lead to better output," said Arthur. "I've never seen an idea get better because a creative was told, 'If this isn't awesome, then we're going to get fired.'"
"You learn more from bad meetings than you do from good ones," Arthur added.
Plenty of CEOs have their own preferences for how to run the best meetings. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for example, likes to conduct "messy meetings," which are brainstorming sessions that feature plenty of rigorous back-and-forth about people's ideas, he told the "Lex Fridman Podcast" in December 2023. These sessions often last longer than their allotted time slot, allowing the conversations to wander around.
"When I sit down [in] a meeting, I don't know how long the meeting is going to take if we're trying to solve a problem," Bezos said. "The reality is, we may have to [let our minds] wander for a long time ... I think there's certainly nothing more fun than sitting at a whiteboard with a group of smart people and spit-balling and coming up with new ideas and objections to those ideas, and then solutions to the objections and going back and forth."
Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, swears by his two-minute rule, he told CNBC Make It in 2018. "You have to give someone an uninterrupted two minutes to explain their thinking before jumping in with your own," Dalio said. "This ensures that everyone has time to fully crystallize and communicate their thoughts without worrying they will be misunderstood or drowned out by a louder voice."
However you conduct meetings, prioritize creativity and authenticity over intimidating your employees to get something done, Arthur recommended.
"Our best leaders absorb that pressure, and then everyone else feels like they're having a great time," he said.