Death By A Thousand Meetings
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Improving business results is ocassionally about breakthrough new ideas and inventions, but often improving business results is about doing simple things more effectively. Patrick Lencioni, author of “Death By Meeting” suggests a simple way to dramatically improve the effectiveness of every meeting in your organization. Lencioni suggests 4 meeting types for maximum effectiveness:
- Daily Check-In Meeting
- 5 minutes in length
- Each person shares daily schedules and activities
- Keys to success:
- Don’t sit down
- Keep it administrative
- Don’t cancel even when some are missing
- Weekly Tactical Meeting
- 45 - 90 minutes in length
- Review weekly activities and metrics; then resolve tactical obstacles and issues
- Keys to success:
- Don’t set the agenda until after reviewing metrics
- Postpone strategic discussions
- Monthly Strategic Meeting
- 2 - 4 hours in length
- Discuss, analyze, brainstorm and make decisions about critical issues affecting long term success
- Keys to success:
- Limit meeting to 1 or 2 topics
- Assign people to research topics ahead of time and be prepared with recommendations
- Engage in productive conflict
- Quarterly Off-Site Meeting
- 1 - 2 days in length
- Review strategy progress, industry trends, competitive landscape, key personnel, team development
- Keys to success:
- Get out of the office
- Don’t overstructure the schedule
Use these simple meeting strategies to improve the quality of your meetings. If your meetings are more effective, maybe you can have fewer meetings and get more done.
To your success!
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Excellent article. A logical meeting roadmap with purpose rather than a chocablocked calendar of meetings for the sake of meetings. The 5 minute start of day call is essential glue for effective management teams.