Why I Ditched Every Other Meeting for This One

Whether you've read Death by Meeting or not, you're probably familiar with the phrase.

Bad meetings suck. And they'll kill your company.

BUT, good meetings are essential, and they have the power to transform your company for the better.

That's why our topic for today is to tackle creating the best leadership team meeting EVER.

The Dreary Industry Standard

We've all been in them. Meetings that lack structure, have unclear agendas, and have little to no active participation.

• The endless reporting meetings.
• The ideation meetings "to save the day" with no action items.
• The autocratic meeting, where you sit, listen and say N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

🤬

I see and hear about this all the time. It's so sad because good meetings have so many tangible benefits:

1. Team Alignment,
2. Accountability,
3. Idea Sharpening,
4. Problem-Solving, and
5. Increased Efficiency.

There's A Meeting For That...

Many people rush to solve this dilemma by creating more meetings. 

Meetings to hold people accountable.

Meetings to come up with new ideas.

Meetings to solve problems.

Meetings to develop team bonding.

Slowly but surely, you spend less and less time working and more and more time meeting.

But nothing gets done.

One (Meeting) to Rule Them All 💍

So, get rid of your weekly 1:1s, and for the love of all, stop the endless meetings.

Do this instead – one 90-minute team meeting with your 4-6 direct reports.

I've done this for years, and it's hands down the best way to run your team.

I call it the "Weekly Huddle."

Here's the agenda (and it doesn't change):

• Wins (5m)
• Reporting (15m)
• Action Items (5m)
• Problem Solving (60m)
• Wrap-Up (5m)

Wins: Spend a few minutes catching up with your team and see what wins they've had from the last week (personal and professional).

Reporting: Review your company dashboard (e.g., metrics, scorecard, etc.) and check progress on OKRs (e.g., goals). Identify any roadblocks or problems that need to be discussed. Add them to the "Problem Solving" portion of the agenda for further discussion.

Action Items: Check in on any assigned action items from the previous week(s). #Accountability

Problem Solving: List all problems that need to be resolved. Prioritize the top 3 issues and follow the 3 D's:

1. Determine the root problem (it's often not what is written down as the issue).
2. Discuss all potential solutions to the problem.
3. Decide the best course of action to resolve the issue and create action items.

Wrap-Up: With 5 minutes left in the meeting, recap all action items and discuss how to communicate any updates to the rest of the team (if applicable).

This single meeting structure will keep your team talking about the right things, hold everyone accountable to their objectives and action items, and help your team stay focused on the most important issues at hand. 

The Multiplier Effect

If you recall last week's newsletter, I wrote about the shift from weekly 1:1s to quarterly 1:1s.

When you replace your 4-6 weekly 1:1s with a quarterly 1:1 and the weekly huddle, you get what I call the multiplier effect.

1. Higher team engagement.
2. Team-based accountability.
3. Hyper-focused work.
4. Minimal effort.
5. Maximum output.

You shift from 78 hours of team meetings per quarter to 28 hours of team meetings per quarter while getting 3-4x more output.

Boom-shaka-laka! ⛹️