A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled “Ban All Meetings” in which I laid out simple, doable, steps for conducting effective meetings or what I call great meetings. In the post I stated that great meetings help you beat the competition.
Here’s more on that, on how great meetings help you win the game of business. In this post we’ll look in particular at how great meetings promote strategy execution.
Meetings Promote Strategy Execution
Let’s start with this: Winning in business is simple. Here’s how you do it. Fill an underserved need in a healthy niche. Defining the need and the niche is strategy.
But winning requires more than a good strategy. We must execute. Strategy EXECUTION requires a continued flow of great DECISIONS and constant FOLLOW THROUGH.
DECISIONS are choices that dictate what we choose to do (vs. not do), what direction we go, how we allocate our limited resources. And over time, the team that makes the best decisions wins.
The best decisions are strategy focused and they’re mostly made in great meetings. Why? Because when brains assemble in great meetings you get synergy where the combined output is greater than the sum of the parts.
In fact, synergy creates a super brain. And a super brain always beats a single brain. It also beats a muddled brain, which is what you have when a bunch of brains get together in a bad meeting. Fortunately for you, your competitors are probably working with single brains and muddled brains.
The second piece of strategy execution is FOLLOW THROUGH which depends heavily on buy-in and accountability.
When people buy-in, they are much more motivated to take persistent action. Great meetings generate buy-in by giving people the opportunity to contribute their thinking and to understand the reasons behind decisions that are made, whether they fully agree with them or not.
While buy-in is the starting point, follow through depends on people holding themselves and each other accountable. I’ve written on this topic before where I’ve suggested that the key to accountability is to keep stats and share them publicly. Stats are numerical counts of activities and results. Shining the light publicly on what’s happening, and the subtle peer pressure it exerts, keeps people focused and actively engaged in doing what’s important.
Beat the competition. Use great meetings to shine at strategy execution.
