I was reading an article from McKinsey the other day and
it posed the question that because we live in a world with so
much information why is it that we seem to be really busy
but sometimes feel we're not getting a lot of stuff done?
Click the blue times to jump to that section.
00:00 – Intro
00:11 – Why aren’t we getting stuff done
00:35 – Are meetings necessary
01:22 – 3 types of meetings
01:40 – Decision making
02:13 – Business as usual
03:05 – Info sharing
You know with all the endless meetings we seem to have, along with the emails and messaging, we just seem to be doing a whole lot of stuff but not always being productive about it?
Today I wanted to talk to you about how we can collaborate rather than just share information. So this got me thinking, are all the meetings we have on a day-to-day basis really necessary? Now don't get me wrong, for a guy that spends most of his day in meetings with business owners that's what I do, so you might think it's a little bit ironic that I'm questioning around meetings and the need for meeting rhythms. But I think the important thing to think about here is how do we get the results that we're after.
Now communication is vital but sometimes I don't think we're communicating that well. We're just talking. So let me explain the three things that McKinseys talked about.
In the McKinsey study they found that 80% of executives say they frequently find themselves spending way too much time on pointless interactions. I think the key there is pointless. So they suggest think about your interactions and your meeting rhythms in three ways.
Number One is around decision makings when the decisions might be a little bit complex or uncertain.
Number Two business as normal, just part of the work routine.
Number Three is information sharing.
So let me talk about the three separately.
So first of all when it comes to decision making I'm not talking about day-to-day decisions but sometimes when there's a level of complexity or uncertainty.
The first thing is be clear on is who actually needs to have a voice, who do you need to talk to, who do you need to get information from, who you need to listen to, but also be clear who is the final decision maker, who makes that final decision and if the decision is just a standard work process or business as normal.
If the latter then I would be suggesting put some protocols or guidelines in place that you don't need a meeting for meetings sake, you can be guided by the systems or protocols.
The second thing to think about is meetings that are more business as normal or routine. You know it might be just a daily check-in, it might be talking about new goods or services – it's just that day-to-day stuff that we typically do.
I think the key here though reading the McKinsey report is the question to ask yourself is how do you empower your team to actually make decisions themselves and be able to come to the table with solutions as opposed to be having the meeting to start that process.
So really it's a question about how can we get people to think and act on their own as opposed to having to tell them what to do and it's very important to be clear on what is the purpose of the meeting and that people come well prepared. There's nothing more frustrating than when you go to a meeting and materials that have been sent out previously and no one's even bothered to read it, let alone think about it.
The purpose of the meeting should be accepting the information but more importantly questioning it and talking about the opportunities.
The third thing that McKinsey talked about was just simple information sharing and it asked the question do you actually need to have a meeting at all? If it was just simple information sharing are there other ways that we can do that?
So as we head into 2022 look at your meeting rhythm, look at how your meetings are taking place, look at how your people are interacting in those meetings. Do they have the ability to make decisions, is it collaborative or is it just more talking?
Because the businesses that I work with that seem to find that sweet spot around communication get very very strong results.
Thanks for watching, if you like the video give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, all that sort of stuff, and until next time catch you later, bye.
If you’d like to learn more about how PlanA Consulting can have a huge positive impact on your business, then contact Hutch today on 021 748 142 or john@planaconsulting.co.nz
Regards, Hutch.
