Too many meetings at your agency? Or maybe not enough. Don't be like the three partners who prided themselves on "door jam" meetings where they'd settle important issues on the fly. It was casual and breezy, but too often one of the partners was unintentionally left out. In interviewing the staff as part of an agency assessment the single biggest problem was, yep, mixed messages and lousy communication.
If you're in a company with more than 3 or 4 employees you're part of a dynamic ever-changing organism requiring some structure to stay healthy. The executive team has to meet frequently to check the company "dashboard" and make sure the gauges and dials indicate things are going right.
In running a company, two kinds of meetings are required: operations and policy. Operations meetings cover the day-to-day things which are often trivial but can cripple if not managed - should we replace the ever-jamming copier; one of the toilets is busted; what about this year's summer picnic, etc.
Policy meetings are more high level - the pros and cons of absorbing a competitor, reviewing the hiring budget, planning for retirement of a senior partner.
Aim to spend an hour a week on ops - same day and time if possible so it becomes an easy habit. Schedule half-day policy meetings no less than every quarter to review the big issues and opportunities. Then, to cover the really important stuff requiring thoughtful contemplation, once a year hold a full-blown facilitated offsite retreat for a couple of days.
A word about facilitators. You'll stay on track, get more done, and come up with many more solutions and ideas if you engage a professional facilitator familiar with your industry (find out more about what we do in this area on the FAQ page of our website.) An objective referee will make things more productive than if you did it on your own. Besides, there's a reason doctors don't operate on themselves.
Now as far as your agency's day-to-day internal meetings go, you'll learn a lot about how the sausage is made if you pop in and audit one. Don't say a word, don't look at anybody, don't get pulled into the fray. Just listen. Easily 90% of what you'll hear is "problem swirling" - defining and reiterating every facet of a problem with only an occasional poke at generating solutions. It's one reason people leave meetings grumbling, "What happened in there? What a waste of time!"
Meetings are tools but they're not a multi-purpose Leatherman. A meeting is only good for three things: (1) to share information, (2) to capitalize on opportunities, and (3) to solve problems. They are not free-for-alls for attendees to pile on ("Yeh, and another thing that's wrong around here is."..)
Here's an elegant 3-part prescription which will easily quadruple your meeting productivity. Start by briefly defining the issue and asking, What's possible to achieve - what's the ideal outcome we want? Next, ask What are the obstacles, what's in our way? Finally (and spend the bulk of your time here): How do we remove the obstacles?
With the obstacles out of the way the path will be clear and you'll be on your way to accomplishing your goal. Keep it that simple and your meetings will become shorter and a lot more satisfying.
(The above excerpt is from 15 Things Every Agency Owner Should Know. The article is available in its entirety on our home page
.)
