My staff hate meetings. Do we have too many?

Dear Aunty B,

We are a very fast growing company and yes, at times, chaotic. One way I keep everyone focused is by having quick short meetings. I follow the Verne Harnish mantra that lots of little daily and weekly meetings are better than large strategy meetings.

But my staff have told me they would prefer the large ones and to be held infrequently so they can get on with their job every day. Who’s right?

Leonie
VIC

Dear Leonie,

Not sure. You are right if the meetings are highly focused, reiterate goals, check execution and basically giddy everyone up. However, maybe your meetings are meandering time wasters full of ideas that no one ever follows up. In that case they are a waste of time.

Have a look at your meetings. If you are a true Verne advocate you will have 5-15 minute meetings with 2-5 minutes of “What’s up?”, 2-56 minutes of daily measures and indicators, 2-5 minutes of what are the bottlenecks and what can be done. And optional is a few minutes of motivation about future vision and goals.

The reason? Staff keep everything moving because of the peer pressure of the group. It is too easy for someone to sit in the corner of the room and just do their job – not deliver measurable outcomes.

Meetings increase the pace of deliverables and that takes the pressure off you! So keep your meetings but tell your staff you are changing the format. To keep them all focused make sure they stand up.

Good luck,

Your Aunty B