pitch unfairly

Guides · Team and culture

All-hands meeting deck

An all-hands meeting brings the whole company together to hear where things stand, what is changing and why. The deck works when it leads with the one decision or change people need to hear, shows the numbers honestly, and leaves real time for questions.

Use it when
All-hands and policy announcements, culture decks, recruiting and hiring pitches.
Typical length
All-hands 10 to 12; culture 12 to 20; recruiting 10 to 11.
Format
Presented to the team, then sent; recruiting decks are sent to candidates.

The all-hands structure, slide by slide

Borrowed from Ford's $5 day all-hands structure. Each beat is one slide, three at most.

  1. 01CoverThe change in three facts people will repeat: the money, the hours, the date.
  2. 02What happenedThe last period in one picture, so everyone starts from the same place.
  3. 03The broken numberOne metric that is failing, shown so nobody can argue with it.
  4. 04The decisionThe new policy as one number at poster size, with what it replaces.
  5. 05What changes for you: payLet each person work out their own number before they ask.
  6. 06What changes for you: timeSchedules, shifts or process, before and after, on one scale.
  7. 07Why we are doing itThe real business reason, with its cost. People can tell when it is charity theater.
  8. 08What we expectEligibility and conditions, stated plainly, before they find the fine print.
  9. 09What is not changingName what stays, so the room stops guessing.
  10. 10FAQThe awkward questions, answered in one line each.
  11. 11What is nextDates, owners, and what to tell people outside the company.
  12. 12Thank youThanks plus one thing everyone can do today.

What good team and culture do

  • All-hands: what happened, the number that matters, the decision, what changes for you, why, what is not changing, an FAQ, what is next.
  • Say what changes for each person before why it is good for the company.
  • Culture decks describe behaviors, not words: who you hire, promote, and let go for.
  • Recruiting decks put the hard parts up front; the right people self-select.

Where they usually fail

  • Burying what changes for people
  • Values as adjectives
  • Selling a job without its hard parts

More all-hands examples

1917 Sales kickoff deck

Madam C. J. Walker

Two hundred agents, two scoreboards: sales and service.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

The story→11 slides

2009 Culture deck

Netflix

125 slides that rewired Silicon Valley.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

125 slides→11

1914 Recruiting deck

Ernest Shackleton

Small wages. Long nights. A story for life.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

The story→11 slides

All-hands meeting deck: questions

What should be on an all-hands meeting agenda?

The headline change or decision, results since the last all-hands, wins worth naming, what is coming next, and open questions, with the time for questions protected.

How often should a company hold an all-hands?

Often enough that news reaches people there before the rumor mill. Many companies run them monthly or quarterly and call an extra one when something big changes.

How do you make an all-hands engaging?

Lead with what changes for the people in the room, use real numbers including the bad ones, give the floor to the people who did the work, and answer the hard questions live.

Make yours with this structure

Type your site and we'll write the prompt for your deck, in your brand, built on Ford's $5 day all-hands structure.