Strategic Discipline Blog

How often do you need to reinforce?  Dawn of Impatience shares Aubrey Daniel’s Bringing Out the Best In People’s view why since 1984 the influence and commitment to positive reinforcement has steadily increased.

Small things add up.  When it comes to producing results from positive reinforcement a small difference influences results dramatically.  Most effective leaders, managers, and supervisors do not necessarily reinforce more often than ineffective ones.  It’s the detail of what they focus on that makes them better.  Discipline to this detail compounds over time.  It delivers steady pressure on the fly wheel which Jim Collins notes distinguishes the Good to Great companies.  Eventually it provides the impetus to breakthrough.  There is no miracle moment.  Breakthrough only comes through daily discipline of doing the right things right. 

There are a number of components within the inner working of Meetings, Metrics and Priorities to make Strategic Discipline work for your business.  When we begin working with clients at Positioning Systems, any implementation of Strategic Discipline includes customer and employee reporting in the weekly and monthly meeting segments. This is critical due to the importance of pattern recognition and the need for balance in your business metrics and priorities.

Last week’s newsletter (sign up here) which I publish monthly was How to Link Customer Feedback to Profitability.

The statistic is frightening.  40% of employee’s time is gobbled up by recurring problems!  These are the issues that never get solved, the copier that never works, the supply closet item that is always out of stock, the messages that are never delivered, equipment malfunctions.  If you conducted a meeting just to determine what recurring problems you have, would you have any doubt your people could provide you with an avalanche of issues?

Last blog we discussed the importance of meetings fitting together.  Your meetings should cascade or telescope from the first meeting of the year which should be your annual planning meeting.  This should be about 2 – 3 days depending upon what you need to discuss, how complex the challenges are that the organizations faces, and when you last did a proper planning and strategy session.

In many companies one of the worst things that we perpetrate is discarding our victories and highlighting our problems!  Too often we are on to our next mountain to climb before we acknowledge those who have helped us reach the heights.   We need to do a better job of adequately celebrating our victories and those who were accountable for them.   The Thin book of Appreciative Inquiry describes the benefits of recognizing what you are doing right. More recently the book Switch emphasized the importance of highlighting “Bright Spots” as integral to discovering solutions. Strategic Disciplines quarterly meeting intends to correct this oversight. 

Every company talks about it, yet not many make the commitment and follow through.  That commitment is to training.  The monthly meeting is a structured, consistent discipline for training when following the agenda we suggest. 

There’s much more to the monthly meeting agenda, yet if it can accomplish one dedicated hour to improving your team’s education and learning it can reward your business many times over with improved efficiency and performance.

The Monthly Meeting should be held as soon as possible after the Financial Results are available from your Accounting Department. One of the most important aspects of the Monthly Meeting Cycle is to see how the organization is performing financially – in actuality – against Quarterly Priorities and Metrics.

The other primary aspect of the Monthly Meetings Rhythms is to spend some quality time evaluating progress on the Quarterly Priorities – and making decisions on any Corrective Actions that need to be taken, should performance not be tracking with the progress needed to deliver on all Accountabilities to the Plan from each SPA (Single Point of Accountability) – The WHO on the Who, What, When Accountability List.

When we speak of Mid-Course Adjustments, we are speaking of precisely that – WHAT is your Corrective Action to get your Accountability back on Plan? While there may be explanations offered in this environment, there can be no excuses for failing to deliver on one’s accountabilities to the Plan.

You will also want to devote time to one or two lengthier subjects of either Strategic or Tactical/Operational Issues. Pick an item or two which need an immediate and a wider level of discussion or discovery -- usually something that is taking shape as an Obstacle or a Chokepoint – and drill down on the subject, with the intention of advancing solutions to remove the obstacle or the chokepoint, before it begins eroding or affecting results.

This Meeting should run about 1-2 hours, and no more. Maintain focused discipline in managing the timeframe, and make every minute together count.”

Here’s our suggested agenda for the Monthly meeting:

• 15 Minutes -  Review Priorities and Last Meetings Actions.   

Every day, depending on the area you live in, you see this universal symbol telling you when to stop or go. As part of Strategic Discipline we expect our clients to provide metrics for their company, team and individual performance.  It’s a part of the weekly meeting agenda.  That might seem sufficient to provide accountability, yet when conducting meetings we feel it’s important to dispense with the numbers as quickly as possible in order to get to the meatier topics that can help the business build momentum.  The metrics need to communicate quickly whether success is being achieved or there’s work to be done.