"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings—and put compensation as a carrier behind it—you almost don't have to manage them." --Jack Welch--
I'd add that this means giving your people the tools and target, getting out of their way, and clearly showing the rewards for winning.
Showing posts with label meeting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meeting. Show all posts
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Did You Arrive at a Consensus? Oh-oh
Everyone likes to make nice. To get along. To get agreement.
But in this rush, the group may not "flush" out all the issues.
The leader's job is to encourge conflict, debate, and healthy disagreement. Only when this happens can the leader be sure that she has drug out enough conflict in order to flush out bad alternatives--and gain commitment around the final (best) outcome.
But in this rush, the group may not "flush" out all the issues.
The leader's job is to encourge conflict, debate, and healthy disagreement. Only when this happens can the leader be sure that she has drug out enough conflict in order to flush out bad alternatives--and gain commitment around the final (best) outcome.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
To Be Like a Rockefeller
In the late 90's, I was presented with a book from my friend David Parfitt in Atlanta titled Mastering The Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish. That book forever changed and improved the way I've set goals, created and communicated plans, and organized and worked with teams.
I'll share just three principles from the many that Harnish discovered were put to use by John D. Rockefeller during the latter half of the oil industry era--when his disciplined approach to business created unprecedented success.
1. Create a One Page Operating Plan. A one-page plan is simple enough that it will get referred to and used often, as opposed to most plans in 3-ring binders that become shelf decorations.
2. Keep Everyone on the Same Page. How do you do this? You create simple, compelling goals and make them visible-- and then support with #3 below.
3. Create Meeting Rhythm. Establish a series of regular meetings with your team and extended team to communicate priorities, get reports against objectives, and use the One-Page Plan as a measure of your progress. Everyone ought to know what's expected and what's coming each time you meet. This keeps the meetings short, pointed, and impactful.
If you'd like to learn more about The Rockefeller Habits, go to Gazelle's website, created by Verne Harnish, where you can download the forms and worksheets to help get you on your way.
I'll share just three principles from the many that Harnish discovered were put to use by John D. Rockefeller during the latter half of the oil industry era--when his disciplined approach to business created unprecedented success.
1. Create a One Page Operating Plan. A one-page plan is simple enough that it will get referred to and used often, as opposed to most plans in 3-ring binders that become shelf decorations.
2. Keep Everyone on the Same Page. How do you do this? You create simple, compelling goals and make them visible-- and then support with #3 below.
3. Create Meeting Rhythm. Establish a series of regular meetings with your team and extended team to communicate priorities, get reports against objectives, and use the One-Page Plan as a measure of your progress. Everyone ought to know what's expected and what's coming each time you meet. This keeps the meetings short, pointed, and impactful.
If you'd like to learn more about The Rockefeller Habits, go to Gazelle's website, created by Verne Harnish, where you can download the forms and worksheets to help get you on your way.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Decision-Based Agendas
Has this happened to you?
You're participating in a group meeting. You come upon an important topic on the very full meeting agenda labeled "Widget Sales Program." The meeting leader initiates the conversation with an somewhat impressive introduction and overview. He or she then asks for input.
As the input comes from all directions from all the participants--the course of the meeting shifts left--then right, then backwards, then totally off topic--then back to the middle.
Many excellent ideas come out. Some are even written down on the flip chart. After 35 minutes of discussion, sharing of ideas, and even bold proposals for "change," the meeting organizer realizes she'd only allowed 30 minutes for the discussion and time is running out, and so she's going to have to move on.
She sums up what she thinks she heard and then moves on to the next topic.
So what was wrong with this? Perhaps nothing--if the group and leader arrived at an important decision or action point based on the discussion.
But more often than not--a meeting agenda prompts a lot of great discussion where many great ideas are shared--but no "goal" was set for the agenda item in the first place. It felt good to the meeting organizer and participants to have the agenda item on the list--but they leave the topic not really feeling as if they did something substantial about it.
How do we make this process better? The answer is through decision-based agendas. The trouble can be--is that these don't come naturally to us. A decision-based agenda item looks odd on the page, and even if we don't phrase it properly, the meeting leader must exhibit the discipline to remember to crystallize the goal for the topic in everyone’s mind so that a decision is reached.
One way to enable this process--is to just rewrite the agenda topic. Instead of "Widget Sales Program," the meeting leader might have listed it as "Widget Sales Program: What Are The #1 and #2 Enhancements Needed to Achieve Our Goals?"
This tells everyone at the outset that their mission for the discussion--is to identify just two components to improve the Widget Sales Program. It's easy for the meeting leader to come back around in the middle of the discussion and remind the group of the goal. And more importantly, it sets the right tone at the very beginning for the participants, so that they know what is expected during this section.
Other agenda topic examples:
Before: "Customer Service"
After: "Customer Service: Determine Priority and Responsibility List Based on Last Month's Survey"
Before: "Warranty"
After: "Establish New Warranty Labor Provision: 1 Year or 2 Years"
Before: "Widget Inventory"
After: "Decide What Stock Items Can Be Reduced to Achieve 10% Inventory Reduction"
Obviously, not every topic on an agenda can be expressed as a question. Often, there are important updates and sharing of information that just need to be expressed as such--without any question attached.
But using a Decision-Based Agenda strategy will help ensure more of our meeting topics produce something useful to take away from the discussion, rather than that empty feeling when we're 30 minutes behind schedule and we just have to "move on because we're out of time."
You're participating in a group meeting. You come upon an important topic on the very full meeting agenda labeled "Widget Sales Program." The meeting leader initiates the conversation with an somewhat impressive introduction and overview. He or she then asks for input.
As the input comes from all directions from all the participants--the course of the meeting shifts left--then right, then backwards, then totally off topic--then back to the middle.
Many excellent ideas come out. Some are even written down on the flip chart. After 35 minutes of discussion, sharing of ideas, and even bold proposals for "change," the meeting organizer realizes she'd only allowed 30 minutes for the discussion and time is running out, and so she's going to have to move on.
She sums up what she thinks she heard and then moves on to the next topic.
So what was wrong with this? Perhaps nothing--if the group and leader arrived at an important decision or action point based on the discussion.
But more often than not--a meeting agenda prompts a lot of great discussion where many great ideas are shared--but no "goal" was set for the agenda item in the first place. It felt good to the meeting organizer and participants to have the agenda item on the list--but they leave the topic not really feeling as if they did something substantial about it.
How do we make this process better? The answer is through decision-based agendas. The trouble can be--is that these don't come naturally to us. A decision-based agenda item looks odd on the page, and even if we don't phrase it properly, the meeting leader must exhibit the discipline to remember to crystallize the goal for the topic in everyone’s mind so that a decision is reached.
One way to enable this process--is to just rewrite the agenda topic. Instead of "Widget Sales Program," the meeting leader might have listed it as "Widget Sales Program: What Are The #1 and #2 Enhancements Needed to Achieve Our Goals?"
This tells everyone at the outset that their mission for the discussion--is to identify just two components to improve the Widget Sales Program. It's easy for the meeting leader to come back around in the middle of the discussion and remind the group of the goal. And more importantly, it sets the right tone at the very beginning for the participants, so that they know what is expected during this section.
Other agenda topic examples:
Before: "Customer Service"
After: "Customer Service: Determine Priority and Responsibility List Based on Last Month's Survey"
Before: "Warranty"
After: "Establish New Warranty Labor Provision: 1 Year or 2 Years"
Before: "Widget Inventory"
After: "Decide What Stock Items Can Be Reduced to Achieve 10% Inventory Reduction"
Obviously, not every topic on an agenda can be expressed as a question. Often, there are important updates and sharing of information that just need to be expressed as such--without any question attached.
But using a Decision-Based Agenda strategy will help ensure more of our meeting topics produce something useful to take away from the discussion, rather than that empty feeling when we're 30 minutes behind schedule and we just have to "move on because we're out of time."
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