Time for an Effective Meeting Intervention

If the last meeting you went to sucked badly, you are in good company.  A survey of over 1000 North American managers indicated that on average they spend about 17 hours per week in meetings.  Of that considerable portion of their work-week, they deemed that one-third of that time was wasted.

The economic implications of this are staggering.  If you multiply 6 hours times the hourly rate of those managers times the number of managers in the economy, you begin to see a number with a whole bunch of zeros behind it.  Even in your own organization this calculation could easily total in the millions of dollars every year.

More selfishly, ask yourself what you would do if you had an extra six hours every week.  Could you work more reasonable hours?  Perhaps you could get to those things you know are important but are constantly displaced by the urgent.

This got us to ask the question, “if meetings are systemically bad, and they cost that much what can be done?”

First of all, do not accept that meetings have to be bad.  We all seem resigned that we have to write-off a significant portion of our week to something we know is useless.  Demand more of yourself, and of your organization.

Second – be part of the solution.  This is your problem to solve.  Even if you do not chair the meeting, you can raise questions as to how effective they are.  Your complacency will get you into more pointless meetings.

Third – insist on a structure.  The engineers and accountants always get a bad rap for being anal retentive.  While you may want to avoid such people at cocktail parties, invite them to help fix your meetings.  A bit of discipline will exponentially improve the value of your meetings.

Finally – figure out what meetings are costing you.  What is the cost to the organization by the time they pay a fully burdened labour cost.  What is the cost to you if meetings are causing you to work longer hours and give up your leisure time.  Profit-driven organizations are usually good a containing costs when they have to.  Get them to contain the cost of their meetings.

Then you’ll have more time to read our blog, and download YouTube clips.  Here’s one from John Cleese – for those who love British humour.

Stop wasting time in meetings!

Given how much time most of us spend in meetings, did you ever wonder why so many of them suck?  Most often it’s because we don’t have a clear purpose for the meeting.   

For most organizations, about once a month, you should be pulling your people together to review your key business indicators, and your results against plan – in other words, hold a Business Review Meeting.  This helps to focus your own efforts, and those of everyone else on your team.  It’s also a powerful team building exercise. 

Monday’s Tip:  Have a purpose for your meeting or don’t bother having it.  Calculate how much the meeting is going to cost you in labour, and if you’re not sure you going to generate that much value – cancel the meeting.

Tuesday’s Tip: Be Prepared.  A successful meeting depends on a number of things happening before you ever set foot in the room.  Circulate an agenda.

Wednesday’s Tip: Show up with Data.  “In God we Trust – All Others Bring Data”.  For a Business Review Meeting, you need to have data in graphical format that tells a story.  Remember to highlight your Baseline, Actual, Target, Trend (BATT).

Thursday’s Tip: Control the Meeting.  Any participant can ask at any time if the discussion has gone off track.  Stick to your agenda, stay on-task, and adjourn early whenever possible.

Friday’s Tip: Record follow up actions.  Just like a meeting without an agenda in advance is probably a waste of time, a meeting without documented follow up actions is definitely a waste of time.  Who has to do what by when?  Write it down.

The Business Review Meeting

What is a Business Review Meeting all about?

Listen to the ‘Business Review Meeting’ podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)

Business Review Meetings Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Business Review Meeting Cheat Sheet

Job Descriptions — Probably Poorly Done, Almost Certainly Useless

Do you have a job description?  Have you seen it since you were hired into your current position?  Does it bear any resemblance to what you actually do every day?  If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions (much less all 3 of them), you are in the minority.  Most organizations either don’t have job descriptions, or have ones that are useless.

There is a good argument to be made that job descriptions are a relic from a time gone by, and that many jobs defy a linear description that is normally seen on a job description.  I would argue that the majority of jobs can, and should have job descriptions, but not in the way they are normally done.

If your job description articulates in painstaking detail the activities that you will undertake on a “normal” day, then it officially sucks.  Sorry to be the one to bring it up but:

a)    Nobody cares how busy you are.

b)   Nobody cares what you do.

Of course there are some highly bureaucratic organizations (often governmental organizations) where they do care about these things, but they are the minority.

Well run organizations care what you get done.  What did you produce?  What are your results?  How much value did you create?  A good job description will articulate these things – not how many paper clips you will use to file a report.

So I’m drawing a line in the sand today – Job Descriptions are dead.  Throw them away.  In their place, we will create POSTION OUTCOMES DESCRIPTIONS (PODs).   This is not a directive to the HR people out there – they are usually the last to come on board with such changes.  This is to every person who wants to make a difference.   A well-written POD will facilitate you making a difference at your job.

Write yours today, and get your boss to sign-off on it.  Then, when the crap-tasks start sliding across your desk, you have some mechanism by which to question it.  In your old Job Description, the crap-task would have fallen under “other duties as assigned”.

Now do you see why you need to do this?  There are lots of tools on the Wily Manager website to help you with this.  Join the revolution – and let us know how you’re making out.

The New Job Description (“Position Outcomes Description”)

Do you know what your organization expects of you?  Were you ever given a good job description?  We can’t believe how many people we talk to out there that don’t actually have one.

We decided to turn job descriptions into a useful tool:  The Position Outcomes Description. In just a few minutes you can write your own Position Outcomes Description to help you:

  • Organize your work
  • Get more done
  • Impress your boss

Click here to download it:

Job Description Template (pdf)

Monday’s Tip: This is not an HR Thing. You need to do this for you – don’t wait for your organization. A Position Outcomes Description will help you be more organized, focus on the right things, and get more done.

Tuesday’s Tip: Focus on Specific Outcomes. Don’t talk about process and compliance at this point.   What are your outputs?  What would happen if you got hit by a bus?

Wednesday’s Tip: Don’t forget about Leadership. What you need to accomplish is important, but equally so is how you get those things done.  You must consider your leadership and interpersonal competencies

Thursday’s Tip: Manage Stakeholders. Where does your position intersect with others?  Figure out who your key stakeholders are, and proactively manage those relationships

Friday’s Tip: Measure Your Performance. Not everything is easily measured, but you need to try to assess how you are doing on key business goals.

How to Write a Job Description

What are some important things to remember before you write a job description?  What are the 4 key components of a job description?

Listen to the ‘How to Write a Job Description’ podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)

Job Descriptions Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘How to Write a Job Description’ Cheat Sheet

How to Write a Job Description

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Things to Keep in Mind Before You Write a Job Description

  • Job descriptions are not an ‘HR thing’
  • Job descriptions should be focused on outcomes
  • Job descriptions should be used for the entire life-cycle of an employee (recruiting, development, evaluation, discipline, succession)

Four Components of a Job Description

One: Basic Functions

  • Who does this position report to?
  • Who reports to this position?
  • What are budgetary or statutory requirements?
Two: Results to be Achieved
  • Specific outcomes required of this position (production, quality, safety, risk management, etc.) – ‘what’
  • Leadership and interpersonal competencies – ‘how’
  • Values and attitudes required – ‘how’

Three: Stakeholder Management

  • Where does this position intersect with others?
  • Who are key stakeholders, and what is the nature of the relationship with this position?

Four: Metrics used to Evaluate Performance

  • Measurement must be meaningful
  • Production
  • Quality
  • Compliance
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Financial
  • Employee Satisfaction/retention

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Want a High Performance Team? Ditch Your Star

Many moons ago, I was a teenage university student, paying my tuition by working the graveyard shift at a grocery store.  One of the prime motivators of continuing to study hard year after year was so that I wouldn’t have to continue to work the graveyard shift at a grocery store.

Now that a few decades have elapsed, I have come to realize and appreciate the true value of this experience.  When we have assisted clients to implement high performance teams, I am often asked if I have ever been on one of those very special teams.  Then I tell the story about being on night-crew during university….

Interestingly, people are always trying to draw the connection between high-performing individuals and high performance teams.  When I tell people the link is not as strong as they might like to think, I am often greeted with confusion.

Here’s an ugly little truth:  Your star employees are often high-maintenance, and may do more long term damage than good.  Everyone knows the employee who can crank out the results, but leaves a wake of broken relationships and collateral damage behind.  She may produce a superior level of output for some period of time, but may adversely affect the output of others.

High Performance Teams exist where the interactions between team members are exceptionally functional.  A High Performance Team quite likely doesn’t have any stars, but rather group of competent performers who have found their groove in working together.   The success of your organization depends upon the number and quality of these B-players.

Back in the 1980s, in the middle of the night at a high-volume grocery retailer, our little team had no stars.  It was a group of guys who liked working together, had a very clear idea of what they were supposed to be doing, and relentless peer pressure to get things done properly.  Our output was almost double that of any comparable crew – and we had way more fun too.

The prescription for a High Performance Team is easy to understand.  Filling that prescription is much more difficult.

Advance Your Career

Getting ahead is hard work.  Here’s a few suggestions to make it easier:

Monday’s Tip: Don’t Accept Traditional Hierarchies. Figure out what path you want your career to take, and don’t just jump at opportunities to take one small step up on the organizational food-chain unless it fits in with your master plan.

Tuesday’s Tip: Have a Plan. Those who get where they want may not always know the route, but they have a very clear vision of the destination.  What are you working towards?  What are some of the interim steps to get there?

Wednesday’s Tip: Beware of Money and/or Status. Don’t ever do anything exclusively for money or status.  The buzz of money and status has a very short shelf-life, and by pursuing them to the exclusion of your other goals is a one-way street to misery.  If you pursue your other career aspirations, and a by-product of those happens to be money or status, then enjoy it, but realize the pursuit of those things as an end to itself is an empty pursuit.

Thursday’s Tip: Reach Out to Others on Your Career Journey. You will never get anywhere without help.  Ask others for feedback and assistance where appropriate.  Help others achieve their career goals.  Make a list of people you need to keep on your network, and then proactively manage those relationships.

Friday’s Tip: Work Hard. Some people actually think success will fall in their lap – it won’t.  You need to know what your goals are, and then relentlessly pursue them.  Ask any successful person, and they will tell you there are three elements of success: Luck, Being Smart & Hard Work.  They appear in different quantities for different people, but none of these things can ever be zero if you want to be successful.

Getting Ahead

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There are 5 steps to getting ahead at work:

Step One: Figure out what you want

  • Following your ego is usually a bad idea
  • Don’t do it for the money

Step Two: Make a plan

  • What are the intermediate steps?
  • Don’t be linear
  • Take control – no one else is in charge of your career
  • Manage your reputation

Step Three: Reach out to people

  • Network
  • Ask for Feedback
  • Volunteer for high-profile projects
  • Get outside your silo
  • Network outside your organization
  • Keep your boss in the loop as much as possible

Step Four: Beware of others who may want to keep you where you are

  • If you’re generating results, they’ll want to keep you there
  • Talent hoarding is a real problem
  • Never trust anyone in HR
  • You need to be in charge of your career

Step Five: Help others

  • Karma
  • Delegate lots
  • Be a teacher
  • Build great teams around you

Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!

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