Category Archives: Meetings

My Contribution to the Problem

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The team worked for another 40 minutes. They had sixteen ideas on the board, but Julia wasn’t satisfied. “These ideas are good,” she said, “but not sufficient. Let’s take a different approach. I want you to think about yourself. How have you individually, contributed to the lack of throughput around here?”

Ralph was quick out of the gate. “It’s not my fault!” he proclaimed loudly.

Julia smiled. “Ralph. I know, but I still want you to think about it. It’s not your fault, but if it was your fault, how have you contributed.”

Ralph was a little surprised. No one ever dared asked him to consider that he might be the problem.

“I’ll go first,” said Max, letting Ralph off the hook. “When I am bringing materials into the warehouse off the truck, I just start stacking them up in the receiving area. But, we have so much stuff coming in, I stack it too close to the first staging area. Before they can set up the first staging, they have to move everything I just stacked up in the way.

“I had thought about saying something, but I was too pre-occupied with getting the truck unloaded.” Max had just laid it out there. Again, there was silence. Julia let it build.

“Ed, write that up on the board,” she said.

“Who has the next idea?”

What’s Stopping Us

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Ralph began to fidget. By all counts, things should be better than ever. Volume in the department was up, but profitability was sinking. Julia, the new department manager had put the issue on the table. “How do we get the red line to turn up?”

She had warned me earlier that there would be friction. “Things get uncomfortable. Your stomach turns upside down. But you know you are dealing with real issues when your stomach is upside down.

“We can go one of two ways. We can avoid the issue so our stomachs feel better. Or we can work through the issue and make real improvements.”

Ralph spoke up first. “Well, I think we need a new machine on the line. We were promised a new machine by our last manager, but he got fired before we got it. I think our problems would be solved if we just got the new machine.”

In my briefing before the meeting, Julia told me they would blame the problem on one of the older machines. Truth be told, she said, that old machine had more uptime than any of the other equipment on the floor. There were never any materials stacked in front of it waiting. The old machine was definitely not the bottleneck, it was just an excuse covering up the problem somewhere else.

“Ed, write that on the board,” said Julia.

“Write what?” said Ed. “You mean the machine. I don’t think the machine is the problem.”

“Doesn’t matter. Ralph thinks it might be the problem. We are going to look at it, so write it up on the board. Alright, who has the next idea? How do we get the red line to turn up?”

The Meeting Begins

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Julia invited me to sit in the back of the room. I love to be a fly on the wall.

“I have had a couple of team meetings, already,” she explained, “but, for the most part, they were steeped in pretense. They weren’t very productive, but we did get all the nicey, nice stuff out of the way. Today, there will be friction.”

At 9:00am, Julia locked the door. Ralph and two others had yet to arrive, but Julia started anyway. Thirty seconds later, there was a soft tap, tap at the door. Julia motioned for Michael to attend to the late arrivals. As Ralph and one other entered the room, she directed them to chairs up front, next to her. As they were sitting, the last remaining person burst into the room, the team was now complete.

At each place, was the 3×5 card that Julia told me about. She had prepared these in her 1-1 conversations with each team member. They had each seen these cards before and now they would be the basis for a brand new conversation.

The Purpose Behind the Purpose

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“There is another benefit,” I continued. Bob and I had been talking about rotating his team members, having them take turns leading the weekly team meeting.

“This small responsibility tests their leadership skills in a safe environment. It builds the management skill of running a meeting. It prepares them for those occasions when you are traveling and unable to attend. But as they lead the meeting, what else does it do?”

“I am not sure what you mean?” Bob replied.

“At the same time you are training them to become better leaders; you are also training them to become better…?” I stopped. Bob was thinking hard, but it finally came to him.

“Once they are in the hot seat as the leader of the meeting, they get a better understanding of how they can be better participants in the meeting.”

“So, you are using these weekly meetings for two purposes. The first purpose is to communicate the important content of the meeting. The second purpose is to build better leaders and better participants. And that is what I expect out of you, as the manager.” -TF

Test Their Leadership

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“I called back into my office to see how the meeting went, and found out that, just because I was out of town, they decided not to have the meeting. There were important items on the agenda, but they cancelled the meeting.” Bob had just returned from three days on the West Coast.

“What if you never came back?” I asked.

“What do you mean, if I never came back?” Bob replied.

“What if you decided to move to Montana and manufacture dental floss? What would your team do without you? How would they have their meeting?”

“Well, I guess, they would have to pick someone to lead the meeting and carry on.”

“Look, this is a regular meeting, right? Happens every week? Agenda very similar from one week to the next? It’s an important meeting, but the structure doesn’t change much.”

“You are right,” confirmed Bob.

“Pick your next strongest person, tell them to prepare the agenda for next week. Tell them they are going to lead the next meeting.”

“But, I will be at the next meeting.”

“Exactly, but you will become a participant. If you want your meetings to occur while you are out of town, you have to start identifying the leadership while you are in town. Each week, pick a new person to lead. Publish a rotation schedule. You will still be there to prompt and assist, but you will begin to test their leadership in a safe environment.” -TF

I Hate Meetings

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“I hate meetings,” said Megan. Her tone was sharp. “They waste so much time and nothing ever gets done. Sometimes, I think my team uses meetings just to catch up on their sleep.”

I nodded. Many people do not see meetings as an important management skill. “Megan, when you work at your desk, do you get one hour’s productivity for every hour you work?”

Megan bit her lip. She was thinking this was a trick question. “I hope so,” she finally replied.

“So, if you work diligently each day for eight hours, you should get eight hours of productivity?”

“Yes,” said Megan.

“Great. Now, here is the problem. To be a successful Manager, each day, in eight hours, you need to produce somewhere between 25-80 hours of productivity.” Megan’s eyes became wide and she sat back in her chair.

“Megan, you have to leverage your time. You cannot afford to get a one-to-one ratio for your time. You have to multiply your efforts. And meetings are one of your most powerful ways to get that leverage.” -TF

Let Go the Outside World

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I looked around the meeting room. Raul was still on his cell phone. Barry and Jim were hiding their Blackberrys under the table, thumbs furiously pounding. George was reading the business section of the newspaper and Theresa was finishing some paperwork. They were a hard working bunch, but their minds were not in this room. And this was an important meeting.

I made enough noise to get the electronic units shutdown, the newspaper folded and the paperwork stuck in a briefcase, but I could see the minds were still charging about the world.

“Take a 3×5 index card and write down two sentences responding to the following question. What do I need to say to myself and to this group to let go the outside world for the next 45 minutes to be fully present here and now?”

There was silence. The 3×5 cards I had placed on the table remained blank. The pens were poised, but not moving. Seconds ticked off and the first response was put on paper. Then another. Soon, the ink was flowing and the pens finished their work.

As we circled around the table, each team member lost their grasp on events outside the room and began to focus on each other. Four minutes had passed and we were finally ready to work. -TF

Breathe on the Idea

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Janet was not satisfied. For the past two weeks, we had been working to get her team to participate more in problem solving meetings. Janet was warming up to the idea that the difficulty wasn’t with her team. Improvement was in Janet’s court. “Why can’t I get more participation?” she asked.

“Some say that it is the fear of disagreeing with the boss, but I find it is a more universal fear. It is the fear of floating an idea that carries the possibility of rejection.”

I let that sink in a moment. “As a Manager, if you want to promote deeper, richer, more truthful conversations in your team, try this. As ideas are contributed, create a follow-up comment that expands the idea, creates an insight to that idea or connects the idea to a higher purpose, goal or solution. Breathe life into every contribution.”

Two weeks later, I overheard one of Janet’s team members talking at the water cooler. “Our meetings have really gotten better. Janet makes all of our ideas sound so smart.”

Ideas really are smart when you can connect them to a purpose, a goal or a solution. -TF

P.S. We are beginning to receive a number of comments posted to the blog. I know many of you are get the blog via email or by a forwarded email. If you would like to read some of the comments, you can follow the link to Blog Home. Management Skills Blog is actually a website where you can respond to any posting that jams your jelly.

No Whining

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Last week, I posed a question. “What are the elements of a high performing team?” Reader John D. posted a comment that got him a copy of Attitude by Mac Anderson. John suggested that the critical element is approaching problems with solutions rather than whining or complaining. It’s a noble idea, but few teams can pull it off.

As the Manager, you can promote this critical element by providing a structure in your meetings that not only promotes, but requires solutions. As the problem is discussed, stop the conversation and ask team members to write down one or two solutions. When you resume the conversation (one minute later) allow only one idea per person until you have made the entire round at the table.

This accomplishes two things:
1. It points everyone in the direction of a solution before the conversation has a chance to get derailed.
2. It communicates that it is the responsibility of every team member to contribute in the solving of a problem.

Congratulations again to John D. -TF

No Top of Head Thinking

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I was sitting at the back, observing the meeting. Edward was struggling to get participation and when he got it, the response was ill formed, almost off topic.

I pulled Edward aside during the first break. “I can see you are a little frustrated. You ask a question and no one raises their hand. After a few seconds, you can’t stand the silence, so you answer your own question. And when someone does answer, they are talking off the top of their head.”

“Yep, that’s the way it usually goes. Kind of a dull group, don’t you think?” Edward replied.

“Not at all,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “This will take some courage and some patience, but your group will brighten immediately. Never let them talk off the top of their head. Every time you ask a question to the group, ask them to write down their response. Just one sentence or a phrase, but they have to write their response first. Now that means you will have to endure a little silence, but not more than you are enduring now, only this time it is planned silence. Ask each team member to write their response, then put down their pen, so you will know they have an idea. Then, wait.”

Edward went back into the meeting and he posed the next question to the group. He asked them to write down their response. Then he waited. Twenty seconds later, seven people were ready to participate, and their ideas were good because they were no longer talking off the top of their heads. -TF