There are times in business when it gets complicated
sorting out why a team gets stalled. I've had clients who
were facing so many competing issues they couldn't figure
out where to start: their strategy, their capabilities,
their products or services, and so on.
With those companies, we often have to feel our way through
as I sort the issues and help them prioritize where to
start the Change process.
And there are other times when there is a clear starting
point.
I'm working with an organization that knows exactly the
challenge they're facing and the impact it's having on
their business.
They've been sitting for hours in management meetings with
very little managing or problem solving taking place. Can
you imagine what it was like for them to see my slide with
a calculation about the cost being over $1,800,000 in lost
productivity?
Their breakdowns are a result of inexperience with
practices that make individuals and teams effective. While
several of them have been entrepreneurs, they now need to
work at problem solving with peers. Many of them are used
to being responsible for getting things done during
business turnarounds and are unfamiliar with delivering on
both the competing priorities of 'normal' work and client
emergencies.
Most of them are in their role as division heads for the
first time in their careers. They're grappling with the
endless stream of challenges and paradoxical conflicts
faced at that level in businesses. They know they've been
less productive and much less effective than they ought to
be as a team and as leaders of their employees.
A month ago I observed two days of management meetings -
nearly twenty hours in which perhaps 4 hours of actual work
got accomplished.
I pointed out to them that since the root of their
breakdowns is not personality differences but "know how,"
the work I'm doing with them is to give them new tools and
techniques, sort of like new hand rails, shoes and stair
treads, they'll use every day.
They love the fact that what I'm teaching them is
immediately valuable to them in their management meetings.
AND it's also immediately useful in other settings,
including their work with their own direct reports.
Because their behavior is so easy to spot when they're in
their management meeting, that's where we started this
week. I spent 16 hours with them 'first describing the
techniques of running high payoff meetings, then doing some
role playing, and then taking it straight into the rest of
the meetings they had planned.
Here are 3 quick tips they learned to make your own
meetings more effective and productive, immediately:
Tip #1 Have a purpose for the meeting before it begins
While these folks started their meeting with a schedule
that showed a list of topics, they usually launched
straight into discussions without any stated goal for any
of the conversations.
Now they're stating clearly at the beginning of each
conversation whether the purpose is to clarify an issue
that has come up, to identify potential solutions for it,
evaluate efforts underway, or come to agreement about
specific actions and accountabilities.
Stating the purpose at the beginning is helping with the
next tip...
Tip #2 Have the right people at the meeting
Usually, five or six members of the management team sat
through hours of discussions that had no relevance for
their own work in the company. Everyone was at the table
"just in case" it might be useful. So they were spectators
rather than contributing to the work.
Now they're planning each agenda item ahead of time,
including inviting those who belong at the table and
excluding people who have nothing to add.
Having the proper group to work on the matter means they
can absolutely achieve the next tip...
Tip #3 Stick to the topic
When half the people in the room sat observing, they often
tried to contribute ideas so the time didn't appear to be
wasted. Yet their 'helpful' comments derailed conversations
into explaining details already known, or addressing
tactical ideas when the discussion was strategic, and so on.
Now they're holding their conversation among subject matter
experts and people responsible and accountable for the
results. Their conversations go deeper yet take one quarter
as long as before. They're stepping up to a new level as
issues that had languished without progress for months are
being worked on in the next 30 days.
The entire team is very clear about the high payoff return
they'll be getting using those new practices.
----------------------------------------------------
Management expert, consultant, and coach Linda Feinholz is
"Your High payoff Catalyst." Linda publishes the free
weekly newsletter The Spark! to subscribers world-wide and
delivers targeted solutions, practical skills and simple
ways to build your business. If you're ready to focus on
your High Payoff activities, accelerate your results and
have more fun at it, get your FREE tips like these visit
her site at http://www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com
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