Use This Strategy to Create Productive Staff Meetings

Brief 

Improve staff meetings by identifying the key metrics to discuss, using a shared document for each person to input their information and dedicating time to discuss what ideas need further debate and what decisions need to be made, writes Kim Scott. “[A] well-run meeting can save you time by alerting you to problems, sharing updates efficiently and getting everyone on the same page about the week’s shared priorities,” Scott writes.

Insight

Every CEO, middle manager and first-time manager I have ever worked with has struggled to figure out how to run a productive staff meeting.All too often, the person leading the meeting comes to dread it; attendees view it as a waste of time; and those excluded feel sad and bad and left out.

Although bloated staff meetings can be a drain on people’s time and energy, the opposite is also true; a well-run meeting can save you time by alerting you to problems, sharing updates efficiently and getting everyone on the same page about the week’s shared priorities.

Use This 3+3 Formula for a Better Staff Meeting

. Review key metrics

What went well that week, and why? What went badly, and why?

This will go best if you come up with a dashboard of key metrics to review. By “dashboard” I don’t mean some super sophisticated system set up by an IT department. I mean a spreadsheet with a few numbers on it.

What are the most important activities and results you see each week that let you know if you are on track to achieving your goals? You can design the dashboard yourself; you don’t need a corporate infrastructure to do it for you.Ideally, it’s updated automatically; if that’s not possible, make sure everyone working for you updates their part the night before the staff meeting. If necessary, check it yourself and hound them till they get the updates in.