I hate meetings. To me, they usually seem like 5 minutes of substance packed into 2 hours. In fact, the best part of any given meeting is time just before everyone gets there — when you get a chance to chat with those who arrived early. But then the “Agenda” starts, and anything resembling a productive use of time comes to a screeching halt.
And yet…some companies thrive on them — in fact, thrive because of them. The theory being that, done right, meetings can become short bursts of adrenaline, becoming a company’s rhythm and tone.
Verne Harnish, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, writes:
One of the most successful practices any would-be gazelle [Harnish’s term for a nimble, fast-growing company] can implement is that of a daily huddle — nor more than 15 minutes per group, in a room or on a daily conference call, just to celebrate progress toward goals or identify barriers blocking that progress.
What too often goes without saying, is that it takes months of soul searching and sometimes years of experiments and failures for a company to discover its goals, barriers, and measurable “metrics” upon which to base its 15 minute boost.
The latest statistics out of the Small Business Administration bear out that the vast majority of businesses fail within the first 7 years. To excel, however, a business must focus beyond a question of mere survival.
So if we accept, for the sake of discussion, that a daily 15 minute huddle, done right, would keep your company moving forward, the question then becomes: “what should be distilled into that 15 minutes?” What is so important to your business that it should take up the only 15 available all-company minutes per day?
My hunch is that if you find that, you would find the kind of adreneline boost that would turn your business into one of Verne Harnish’s gazelles.
Question: What is the central idea or them around which you would plan your 15 minute daily huddle for your company?