Feel the rhythm

Before dismissing the idea, consider that the top teams at Goldman Sachs and the Oval Office have an effective daily meeting rhythm at the heart of their management practices. I’ve not encountered a single start-up to mid-size firm that didn’t benefit from initiating a short daily huddle with a specific agenda.

“I lead a daily ‘Adrenaline’ meeting,” explains Tony Petrucciani, CEO of Single Source Systems, Inc.. Petrucciani gathers his management team together each day at 10:07am to discuss roadblocks. Their goal is to be out in 15 minutes. The name came from the substance which makes the heart beat faster. “In our case, we wanted the business to pulse faster,” adds Petrucciani.

“Our key customers really like that we do these meetings and it has become a sales tool, differentiating us from our competition,” adds Petrucciani. “It used to take days for issues to work their way ‘to the top’ to get authority to allocate resources – it’s now like Fedex – it’s there by 10:30.” It wasn’t always like that.

The meetings were launched when they faced a large project in overrun status and their customer was getting angry. “We implemented a specific Project Adrenaline daily meeting. Within a week, we were making much better progress, and had gained back credibility from the customer (we told them about Adrenaline). This kept a 6 figure project from imploding,” describes Petrucciani.

Since then, his team has implemented other types of daily Adrenaline meetings (Channel Adrenaline, Sales Adrenaline) that occur just before his management meeting. If a major issue comes up in those earlier meetings, they come through to the Management Adrenaline meeting, keeping the company operating at an effective pace.

“The daily huddles are particularly key when you’re the busiest and spread the thinnest,” notes Chuck Hall, founder and CEO of Charles Hall Construction.

With a focus on clients with multiple projects across multiple regions, Hall has teams working all over America. And with the economy picking up, he’s facing an onslaught of business: “With the daily [meeting], we’re much better equipped to keep our daily tasks aligned with our plan. And it has helped us keep morale high during the difficult slow months.”

The immediate pushback I get when recommending a daily huddle is “We’re too busy!” Executives can’t imagine finding the time to get everybody in the same place or on a conference call every day for one minute, let alone five or 15. And if the company is small and travel isn’t an issue, they’ll tell me, “We don’t need a meeting when we’re seeing each other all day long.”

Yet routine actually sets you free. Teams that huddle daily find they interrupt each other considerably less during the day. It also clears up issues that otherwise linger to clog up the weekly meeting, freeing up time to focus on more strategic issues.

I recommend that companies set the time at an odd time, like Petrucciani’s 10:07am. People do a better job of being on time when the time’s not on the half- or quarter-hour. Make attendance mandatory and on time, with no excuses.

Overall, start and end on time and don’t problem-solve. This meeting is simply for problem identification. If the meeting is face-to-face, stand up to avoid going too long. And back the meeting up against other regular meetings or appointments to force an ending. If it starts to go longer than 15 minutes, people will drop the habit.

The Agenda should be the same every day, with just three items: what’s up, daily measures, and where are you stuck? In the first few minutes, each attendee shares “what’s up” in the next 24 hours. This lets people immediately sense conflicts, crossed agendas, and missed opportunities. The key is to highlight specifics without simply reading one’s ‘to do’ list.

Next, review whatever daily measurements your company uses to track its progress, highlighting any unusual trends. The third and most important agenda item is where people are stuck. You’re looking for bottlenecks.

There’s something powerful in simply verbalising issues. It’s the first step to solving the problem, because “until the mouth runs, the brain won’t engage.”

The only people who don’t get stuck are those who aren’t doing anything so scrutinise the person that reports “everything is fine!” Important as it is, the bottleneck conversation shouldn’t be allowed to drift on into problem-solving.

It’s okay if somebody wants to reply to a bottleneck by saying “Call so-and-so,” but if two people start engaging over an issue, politely suggest they “take it off line.” Remember: The daily meeting needs to be kept short.

biz-ability works exclusively in the Middle East with Verne and the ‘Rockefeller Habits’ principles as an accredited Gazelles coach to align rapid-growth companies for optimum performance. Contact biz-ability CEO Hazel Jackson on [email protected] or +971 4 391 4791