Well…I can’t believe it, but after reading “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job”, I read “Death by Meeting” before I went to bed last night. Two books in one evening! These are really quick reads and I have tons of ideas floating around in my brain after reading them. I have heard that Pat Lencioni is a Christian, but I don’t know that for sure. I do know that there are several places in his books that would lead me to believe he is one and he does always thanks Christ most heartily in his acknowledgements. However, I am a voracious reader and typically alternate between Christian growth books and leadership/management books. I say all that to say that I am not a worshipper of Lencioni, but find his methods to be worth exploring.
Who loves meetings? Who would rather have a root canal? I am in so many meetings at school that some of the kids I am close to call me “Meeting Megan”. It seems that I am always coming from or going to a meeting about something. Most meetings tend to be a waste of time. However, every once in a while you will go to a meeting that just really gets your blood pumping. I love those! Those are the ones that everyone leaves a little fired up. It might be because they are angry or it might be because they have finally hashed something out to the point where we can move forward with pursuing a new opportunity.
Lencioni talks a lot about the need for healthy conflict in a meeting. He also has some great ideas on how to structure meetings in order to get more accomplished. I am going to post below the main ideas of how Lencioni suggests setting up meanings to get the most out of your team and out of your time together.
The Daily Check-In – Requires that team members get together, standing-up, for about five minutes every morning to report on their activities for that day. Five minutes. Standing up. That’s it.
The Weekly Tactical – This should last between 45 and 90 minutes with the following critical elements:
• The Lightning Round: A quick, around-the-table reporting session in which everyone indicates their two or three priorities for the week. This should take no more than 60 seconds per team member.
• The Progress Review: Routine reporting on critical information or metrics: revenue, expenses, customer satisfaction, inventory, etc. This should take only five minutes.
• Real-Time Agenda: The agenda should only be set after the lightning round and progress review are complete. This way the agenda will be based on what people are actually working on and how the company is performing against its goals, not based on the leader’s best guess beforehand.
The Monthly Strategic – This is the most interesting and, in many ways, the most important type of meeting any team has. It is also the most fun. Here, executives wrestle with, analyze, debate and decide upon critical issues (but only a few) that will affect the business in fundamental ways. Monthly strategic meetings allow executives to dive into a given topic or two without the distraction of deadlines and tactical concerns.
The Quarterly Off-site Review – These provide executives an opportunity to regularly step away from the daily, weekly, even monthly issues that occupy their attention, and review the business in a more holistic, long-term manner. Topics for reflection and discussion at a productive Quarterly Off-site Review might include the following:
• Comprehensive Strategy Review: Executives should reassess the strategic direction of the organization, three or four times a year.
• Team Review: Executives should regularly assess themselves and their behaviors as a team, identifying trends or tendencies that may not be serving the organization.
• Personnel Review: Three or four times a year, executives should talk, across departments, about the key employees within the organization. Every member of an executive team should know whom their peers view as their stars, as well as their poor performers.
• Competitive/Industry Review: Information about competitors and industry trends bleeds into an organization little by little over time. It is useful for executives to step back and look at what is happening around them in a more comprehensive way so they can spot trends.
If you’d like, we could set up a meeting at Starbuck’s to talk further about it!