Death By Meetings - Should Small Business Have Them?

INTRODUCTION:

I suppose it's quite funny that when one of the true advantages of being a small business and competing with big business is the ability to be nimble and move quickly without having endless meetings. So should a business have fewer meetings and just get on with it?

Well, not really!

Verne Harnish from Gazelles who is the master of the one page strategic plan (which I rate as being an extremely effective form of a business plan) says that for a business to maintain its rythyms it needs to have meetings daily, weekly and monthly.

Now this sounds a lot but not when you look at their suggested format, length and purpose. These meetings aren't meant to stifle decisions that can be made about whether a new product or service and business direction should be undertaken. These can take big business months if not years.

So let's have a look at Verne's recommendations and see if they make sense.

Figure 1: Grace Jones was a "slave to the rythym". If you want business success you need to have meetings consistently to get momentum in your business quickly.

1. Daily Meetings

Daily meetings should be held for 5 to 15 minutes only at an agreed time. Meet in a huddle and do not sit down as this will assist it to move quickly without getting bogged down.

The focus of the daily meeting should be address any bottlenecks so that people can get their job done!

Agenda recommendations are:

• 2-5 minutes - go around the team and ask "what's happening" for news, accomplishments, good news stories about customers etc;
• 2-5 minutes - daily measurements - what each person hoped to get done today and how they went yesterday completing what they said they would do;
• 2-5 minutes - for each member ask "where are you stuck?" This part is crucial as if there is something holding somebody up you need your management team to know and then after the meeting this can be taken offline and dealt with.

2. WEekly Meetings

Weekly meetings should be held for 30 to 60 minutes. This will usually involve meeting in an area such as a boardroom as is somewhat more formal.

The focus of the monthly meeting should be more strategic. It's important to note that it won't be though if you don't run your daily meetings religiously!

Agenda recommendations are:

• 5 minutes - go around the team and ask for "good news." These can be about work or even private. Getting some laughter is good for the brain as a positive state of mind will help stimulate the brain for good strategy;
• 10 minutes - the numbers. These will be the KPIs you have set on your One Page Strategic Plan for the month and quarter and their progress towards the quarter's target;
• 10 minutes - customer and employee feedback. This should be a summary of your weekly customer and employee feedback. Discuss any highlights, recurring problems and how to fix;
• 30 Minutes - the biggest single issue. This is something that needs to be addressed as a priority that is stopping the organisation's progress to reach its goals;
• End the meeting by asking for one word or a phrase from your team. This is meant to allow you to see what your team is thinking and might give you some clues whether there are things that need to looked into further to help them be part of the group and complete their job.

Figure 2: Stop and ask for feedback from your customers and team and make sure this is reviewed ineach of your weekly meetings! 

3. Monthly Meetings

Monthly meetings should be held for 2 to 4 hours. They involve the high end management.

The focus of the monthly meeting should be learning.

Agenda recommendations are:

• 30 minutes - discuss profit and loss and balance sheet and monthly quarterly budgets. Compare cash flow forecasts to the numbers and if necessary consult your small business accountants prior to the meeting if the numbers don't seem to make sense;
• 30 minutes - what's working and what's not;
• 1-2 hours - specific training. This could be some insights on how to deal with some bigger issues or what others are doing in your space and how they are doing it.

Figure 3: Meet with your team regularly and the results will follow!

CONCLUSION:

Most people want to run away from meetings but the real truth is that if you don't meet and communicate, you will have people running in all different directions and maybe not even running at all but stopping and starting which is highly inefficient and will delay you in reaching your end goal.

Be like the old Grace Jones song "Slave To The Rythym" and what you will find is that your business will be slingshot into the stratosphere very quickly, impressing your shareholders/partners, bankers, small business accountant and small business advisors no end!