SIRIUS INFORMATION RESOURCES YOU CAN USE MARYLU DYKSTRA WWW.SIRIUSRESOURCES.NET
IF YOU GET THIS
Death by Meeting | A Leadership Fable…About Solving The Most Painful Problem In Business, a book by Patrick Lencioni
YOU CAN USE THIS
MEETING TYPE TIME REQUIRED PURPOSE AND FORMAT KEYS TO SUCCESS
Daily Check-in 5 Minutes Share daily schedules and activities
  • Don’t sit down
  • Keep it administrativ
  • Don’t cancel even when some people can’t be there
Weekly Tactical 45-90 Minutes Review weekly activities and metrics, and resolve tactical obstacles and issues
  • Don’t set agenda until after initial reporting
  • Postpone strategic discussions
Monthly Strategic (or Ad Hoc Strategic) 2-4 Hours Discuss, analyze, brainstorm, and decide upon critical issues affecting long-term success.
  • Limit to one or two topics
  • Prepare and do research
  • Engage in constructive conflict
Quarterly Off-site Review 1-2 days Review strategy, industry trends, competitive landscape, key personnel, team development.
  • Get out of office
  • Focus on work; limit social activities
  • Don’t over structure or overburden the schedule.
TO APPLY THESE
Do not expect that your attendees care or want to be at your meeting. It is the job of the leader to connect with the group and to encourage their participation. Engage people within the first 10 minutes by giving them a reason to care.
You must have provocative, unfiltered meetings to air issues and make compelling arguments for decisions. The leader must mine for and support productive conflict.
One-size-fits-all meetings are ineffective and damaging. Use different meeting formats to achieve difference results.
Don’t create your meeting agenda until you know the areas of crucial focus; create that list with quick updates and let the pressing issues rise to the top of the priority list. At that point, you can then devote time and energy to the important topics.
Use a facilitator to allow the leader of the team to participate fully without having to play a more objective, supporting role.
THE NEXT STEP
Remember “The Gong Show”? A TV sitcom that ran from 1976-1980, each show was a contest between amateur performers. If their act was particularly bad, the judges would hit a gong and end the performance. If your meetings consist of presenters vying for mindshare with PowerPoint presentations and passionate pleas, you may be experiencing The Gong Show. Ensure that your meetings are meaningful with an appropriate balance of content, context and conflict to get to the point, resolve issues and make good decisions. How? Create objectives for each meeting type. Establish meeting guidelines. Don’t fall for persuasion tactics. Give yourself time to adjust to new methods. Use a facilitator for strategic sessions.

Sirius Resources creates and facilitates business and marketing strategy sessions to ensure you define and reach your goals with actionable ideas and objectives.
Marylu Dykstra 616.868.6306 mdykstra@siriusresources.net