Can team meetings and productivity go hand in hand?
Meetings can be highly effective times to get your team together, get on the same page, and get things done. Or they can unfortunately be a complete waste of time. And let’s face it, most meetings are pretty ineffective. You waste time on chit-chat at the beginning, meander through a whole range of topics without making any real decisions, and close by setting up time next week to do the same thing all over again.
But what if there were a better way to run your meetings so that you spent time wisely, made actual decisions, and did it all within the allotted time? It might sound too good to be true, but when you make every meeting a Level 10 Meeting™, you can make it happen.
What is a Level 10 Meeting™?
If you ask most businesses to rate their meetings on a scale from 1-10, the average will be about a 4. That’s pretty pitiful, considering many of us spend most of our days in these meetings. And productivity for business owners is vital for business success, and quality of life as well.
If we are spending more time in virtual meetings anyway, productivity is key for gaining attention, since we don’t gather in person. (See this helpful video on hybrid meetings as well!)
Enter the concept of the Level 10 Meeting™ to solve this problem.
This kind of meeting is one that tackles actual issues with purpose, gets to the point right away, and truly solves problems within a reasonable amount of time. Plus, it starts – and ends! – on time, every time. It’s part of the overall Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS).
A Level 10 Meeting™ follows a few simple guidelines to drive effectiveness.
- You should have one Level 10 Meeting™ every week, and it should be on the same day at the same time for consistency.
- The agenda is always the same (more on this below), and you will start on time and end on time, every time.
The Agenda of Level 10 Meetings™ to Promote Productivity
The meeting starts on time.
Get there early, start the meeting right on time, and begin with good news. This helps you start working on the business instead of in the business, and it takes about five minutes.
Now it’s time for reporting mode.
You’re headed into the time where you make sure everything important in your business is on track. Review your scorecard, do a rock review, and share any customer or employee headlines. Each of these takes 5 minutes.
Jot down any problems that come up – you’re not solving problems yet, you’re just building an issues list.
The to-do list comes in next.
This is where accountability happens, and it’s a dynamic document. Take 5 minutes to review last week’s to-dos. Actually, 90% of those should be completed already to keep things moving.
Next, it’s onto IDS – the Identify/Discuss/Solve process.
This is where you take any issues that came up in reporting mode and work to find solutions. Identify what is the real issue, discuss that issue openly and honestly, and then you can push to solve.
Once it’s solved, the issue comes off the IDS list and onto the To-Do list, and it’s onto the next one in order of priority. You take a whole 60 minutes for this step, and you might get to just one item or solve ten issues in one go. It all depends on what you’re tackling that day.
Finally, you conclude the meeting.
Review the To-Do list, recap any cascading messages to go out to the org, and then rate your meeting on a scale of 1-10. If your score is lower than an 8, you can have a quick check-in about why. This takes the final five minutes of the meeting, and then you’re done in exactly 90 minutes. End on time!
Make Level 10 Meetings™ Engrained into Your Business
For meetings to truly embody the spirit of productivity, these need to start at the top and flow down to each team.
You can start out holding your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ with your leadership team to solve the big-picture issues and small but critical problems that you face regularly. The Level 10 Meeting™ is perfect for leadership teams looking to make meetings more effective and get more things done in less time.
But you don’t need to stop there. You can also implement Level 10 Meetings™ at every level of your company to bring the power of problem-solving to every department.
For entrepreneurs and small business owners, your time is incredibly valuable, and so is the time of your typically small teams. Saving an hour or two per week on pointless meetings can make a big difference for everyone, and especially in productivity.
Finally, check out this video on creating productive teams!
Want More Productivity Tips for Business Owners?
Now that you know about Level 10 Meetings for ultimate productivity, you can customize them to your company culture and business style!
Check out our weekly videos on productivity for business owners, marketing technology must-haves, digital marketing knowledge, and so much more.
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