Business problem
Meeting Rhythm
Business Meeting Rhythm Problem
Poor teamwork
Companies suffer when employees are isolated in cubicles or departmental silos. Business success relies on teamwork which is hard to develop when people don’t really know each other. And, as the saying goes, “to know me is to love me”. When people get to know each other they grow fond of each other which in turn has them working more closely as a team.
Certainly having employee social and “team building” events helps build relationships and thus teamwork but by far the best way is to get people working together on a problem or a project. So resist the urge to solve problems or complete projects by yourself or to delegate them to one person. Get a group involved. You’ll get a better result and the members will build or strengthen relationships that pay team-building dividends forever.
Time wasting meetings
A meeting is a group of people coming together to make something happen. At that moment they’re a team. And team meetings build teamwork. But we shy away from, or completely avoid, meetings because so many meetings are poorly run, basically the meeting rhythm is poor.
When we consistently have good meetings we don’t waste peoples’ time, we need less meetings, we get a lot more done and we build productive relationships in the process. Good meeting management is not hard. You just need a purpose, an agenda, a specific objective, a timekeeper, and the discipline to stay on topic. And, perhaps most importantly, at the end of each meeting, always decide on action items, deadlines and people responsible. I call that Who What When.
Complaining behind closed doors
There can be a lot of employee back-channel conversations where people say privately to each other what they really think because they aren’t given the opportunity to express themselves freely out in the open. Those hidden insights and opinions could be of great value to the company if they were expressed in the open. But instead they’re spoken in private in what is often a complaint session. Pervasive, private, complaining erodes the company’s culture.
Please encourage your employees to express themselves openly. Diverse viewpoints expressed by people with different knowledge and experience help generate better choices and smarter decisions. Use an effective meeting rhythm to encourage candor in meetings. Encourage people to speak up. Send a cultural message that candor is valued in your company by thanking people for their dissenting views.
Business Meeting Rhythm Problem
Slow progress
Every company needs a rhythm of good meetings (importance of meeting rhythm) to accelerate progress. Because people are the core of a successful business it’s important they communicate, collaborate and coordinate frequently. This is true within teams and departments and between departments. An example is the weekly S&OP meeting where representatives of Sales and Operations update each other on the latest developments and work through problems together.
Establish a rhythm of well-run meetings across the organization to get people working more smoothly and closely together. Over time your people will be making smarter decisions and taking faster action which in turn will speed up overall progress.
Gather your people together to make plans, review plans, and to work together to improve your company’s performance. Put in place the essential meeting rhythm. That includes a weekly leadership KPI review, departmental and interdepartmental meetings, as well as frequent project review meetings. Make sure to hold monthly budget vs. actual financial review meetings and regular (less-frequent) all-company and strategy review meetings.