Strategic Discipline Blog

This past week I had the opportunity to speak at length with a prospect that is a big fan of Jim Collins, Good to Great.  His business has been growing, doubling revenues in the past 24 months.  He’s been responsible for several innovations which have resulted in patents for his company.  He’s very aware of the momentum of the flywheel and feels his business is at the point that it’s generating that type of thrust.

Many of our biggest issues in the workplace stem from a lack of appreciation of our fellow workers.  Just this past week one of my clients faced a challenging dilemma.  His team of support staff had put in an extraordinary amount of hours to reach a priority they’d set for the quarter.  They’d truly knocked the goal out of the park on one of their priorities while reaching 94% (goal was 100%) on another timeline that required them to get information to their clients on another.  The second priority wasn’t something that their customers were asking for however it was a benchmark everyone agreed upon to indicate their work was done without any loose ends. 

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.