I’ve Found The Answer To Productive Meetings
Meetings can be a tricky beast. There are some companies that spend hours in meetings getting whole lot of nothing done. Other companies realize how unproductive meetings can be and try and avoid them altogether.
At Agenacare, our meetings have always been pretty productive and I believe that is the case, in part, because there are always many fires we are trying to put out and updates we are trying to pass through to the company. However, we were having a 1–1.5 hour meeting every morning, which I felt was a little too often, and started the work day at 10–10:30a.
After reading a book called Traction by Gino Wickman, I wanted to try and put in place the “Level 10 Meeting”.
Traction is an amazing book that has helped me add structure and accountability to our company in a way that we were somewhat lacking before. It is my plan to do a bite-sized review of the book in the future on this blog to give you a better idea of how the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) works. For now though, I wanted to focus on a very powerful tool represented in the book called the Level 10 Meeting.
What Is The Level 10 Meeting?
The Level 10 Meeting is a 1.5 hour meeting that spends about half an hour quick-fire reporting on the company’s measurables and an hour identifying, discussing, and solving issues.
The Level 10 Meeting Breakdown
5min. Segue
These are personal and business “good news” shared to get people’s minds in “meeting mode”.
5min. Scorecard Review
In every weekly Level 10 Meeting, each person in the meeting has list of measurables they are responsible for identified by a measurable number on what is called a scorecard. In this section of the meeting, the scorecards are read off quick-fire — what is the numerical goal, did we hit that goal. Any goal not met gets dropped down to the Issues Solving section of the meeting.
5min. Rock Review
A company running an EOS should have what are called Quarterly Rocks. These are SMART goals that are meant to be completed by the end of the quarter. During this section, each rock is read out and the person responsible for overseeing that rock simply states “On Track” or “Not on Track”. Again, this section is a quick-fire, non-discussion segment. Any rock not on track gets dropped down to the Issues Solving section.
5min. To-Do Review
In the previous week’s Level 10 Meeting, weekly to-dos were delegated to members of the meeting. In this section, each previous week’s to-do is read off and the person responsible simply states “Done” or “Not Done”. Again, any to-dos that were not done are dropped down to the Issues Solving section.
5min. Employee and Customer Highlights
This section is another segue into the bulk of the meeting. In this quick, five minute section, the meeting members are asked to share any customer or employee highlights worth noting, good, or bad.
60min. Issues Solving Section or “IDS”
The Issues Solving Section or “IDS” makes up the bulk of the Level 10 Meeting. This is the section where Issues are Identified, Discussed, and Solved. The Goal is to solve an issue during this section in such a way that it never has to be dealt with again.
By this time in the meeting, some of you scorecards, rocks reviews, and previous week’s to-dos may have been dropped down to this section. This is where those can be discussed and put back on track.
Further, most team members will bring a list of their issues to this meeting to be solved.
To begin this section, the person running the meeting will write all of the issues on a white board or wherever notes are being taken. They will then select the top three issues decided on by the team. It is important to start with your top three issues first. If you simply start at the top of the list, some of the more important issues might not even be discussed because they are further down the list.
Once the top three issues are chosen, the team starts with the first and Identifies the root issue. Sometimes the root issue is something completely different from the issue written on the white board. The root issue must be found in order to properly solve the problem.
Next, the team discusses the root issue and moves toward a solution.
Finally, the team solves the issue. Most of the time, solving issues involves delegating a to-to to a meeting member to take care of the issue in the coming week.
Once a solution is found, this issue can be marked off the list as solved.
Remember, it’s better to make a decision than not. So, pick a solution that is agreed upon and go with it.
Once the top three issues are solved, the team can then select another top three and start the process over.
Some days you will barely get through one issue. Other days, a team might clean off their whole issues list. Just remember it’s best to tackle your top issues first. Any issues that don’t get attention in this meeting will be put on the issues list for next week’s meeting.
5min. Conclude
For the final five minutes, the team should recap their to-do list and make sure one person is assigned to oversee that to-do gets done.
Any cascading messages should be assigned. These are messages that need to reach employees outside of the meeting.
Finally, each meeting member should rate the meeting on a scale of 1–10. This is where the “Level 10 Meeting” name comes from. The goal is to have a perfect level 10 meeting each time. An average rating of 8 is a pretty solid goal.
Conclusion
At Agenacare, we have had three of these meetings so far and we get better and more focused each time. If you are planning to try and implement these meetings into your week, I will leave you with three things.
- Make sure everyone who attends your meetings makes it a priority. No other meeting or appointment should be scheduled during this time unless there is an actual emergency. If it’s completely necessary, they can join via zoom or call in, but being there in person is always preferred.
- “If you’re on time, you’re late”. Make sure everyone is in their seats and making small talk 5 minutes before the meeting starts.
- Have some fun! Yes, discussing issues can sometimes be difficult and a good amount of friction can arise between team mates. However, take heart in knowing that decisions are being made for the good of the company, and each decision made gets you a step further in the right direction.
