Top Gear UK: Planning meetings are best done in a relaxed atmosphere

In many teams, planning meetings are practiced, at which leaders distribute tasks and outline the general tactics of work in the near future. Many government agencies practice planning meetings on Monday mornings.

Some consider meeting meetings a waste of time, but on the other hand, without regular discussions of current issues, there are bound to be many uncoordinated actions. Here, as always, balance is important.

For example, many government agencies practice planning meetings every week and gather all the staff there. This is a classic example of wasting time. Not every week there are acute issues that are important for the entire team. At the same time, everyone should be present at such events. Even those who are not directly or indirectly affected by the current agenda. Meetings and briefings have become a classic example of time wasting in time management books.

HOW TO HOLD THE PERFECT PLANNERCH?

Nothing is perfect. No one knows how to properly conduct a planning meeting. There are too many variables here. What kind of planning meeting your team needs depends on how many people you have and what type of activity you are engaged in. I can only give a brief summary of what I have seen in various organizations.

When I worked at the institute, I happened to work in two structural divisions. Both of them practiced meetings with the leader. They took place on an irregular basis and in both cases were quite productive. We were able to discuss all pressing issues. There was one minus of these planning meetings - sometimes (not always) they were boring, since not all questions concerned me in one way or another.

I also worked in a private organization where there were no planning meetings at all. In any case, working as a programmer, I was lucky for about 2.5 years to only talk with the director face to face a few times. The rest of the time at work I was engaged in my direct work and discussed the results of work with the manager in the current mode. This was enough for the eyes.

In another organization, I saw daily planning meetings that are practiced every morning, regardless of whether there is any actual agenda or not. For my taste, daily planning meetings are already too much. For example, if every morning all team members spend 15 minutes on a planning meeting and another 15 minutes on returning to daily activities, then 2.5 hours of wasted time for each employee every week accrues in a week. This is more than 5% of the total working time. For a month already runs more than 10 hours. Agree - it's noticeable.

In addition to morning meetings, I also met the practice of evening meetings, which take place in a relaxed atmosphere, when many things have already been done and no one is in a hurry. I personally like this format more than the morning planning meeting.

As for the weekly planning meetings, they are probably needed. But you need to try to carry them out in the most concise format. Do not drag out discussions for hours. Especially if he participates in the planning meeting a large number of of people.

WHY IS THE MORNING GROUP EVIL?

While people are pulling up to work, while they wake up, some time passes. Then they just start doing their business - and they are distracted by the morning meeting. Then, after the planning meeting, they get back to work. And - God forbid someone will distract them from business after the planning meeting. Then at 11 in the morning you will need to go to lunch, and after dinner it will make you sleepy. Morning is the best and most productive time. I would not spend it on a daily planning meeting.

STANDING MEETINGS IN THE HALLWAY

If there are few people in the team, then why not hold meetings standing in the hallway. With a sedentary lifestyle, it is also healthier and allows you to feel much freer. Many business coaches advise to implement this into daily practice. You can take this idea further and discuss work issues at the dinner table or while working out in the corporate gym. Think for yourself - you do two things at once, and besides, you discuss work projects in the most relaxed atmosphere and can talk with your colleagues more openly than in the office.

Achieving coordinated, fast and efficient work of the team is not an easy task for any leader. The task of the boss is to develop a single action strategy for each subordinate, monitor their work and correct it. In order to achieve fruitful work, you need to understand how to hold meetings, how to properly give instructions to subordinates for a certain period.

Planning meeting - discussion and distribution of work tasks scheduled for a certain time. Such meetings can be conditionally divided into several types depending on their type, time and number.

The first type includes reporting meetings (such meetings are necessary for management to inform how work tasks are being carried out at this moment), discussion meetings (when proposals are considered and changes to the action plan are discussed) and motivational meetings (where everyone receives their task in the process of solving the main issue).

Depending on the time, you can have daily, weekly, or monthly meetings.

If we take the quantitative factor as a basis, planning meetings can be divided into general or mass meetings (at which all employees are present) and closed meetings (when separate group or department).

Planning meetings has certain advantages:

  • Maintains discipline, reduces the number of delays.
  • Helps to clearly and clearly set tasks for the team. A short-term plan for the day is much more useful and productive than a six-month plan.
  • Indicates the actual performance. This quality is extended if at the planning meeting the employees submit progress reports to their superiors.

Do not forget about the high motivational role of meetings. Conducting a meeting competently means positively influencing the mood of employees, giving a charge for fruitful work and stimulating performance improvement. In addition, this property contributes to the establishment of positive relations between the team and superiors.

On the other hand, planning meetings also has its downsides.:

  • Long meetings take strength and energy from employees.
  • Sudden, unscheduled meetings are usually ineffective.

To avoid such negative factors, you should conduct meetings thoughtfully.

Expert opinion

At the planning meeting, employees offer new ideas for business development and sales increase

Hasmik Gevorgyan,

CEO and one of the owners of the Provocatsia chain of stores in Moscow

We reward and fully support our employees who are interested in increasing brand awareness. Our franchisees have decided to hold special meetings 2 times a month, where employees express their thoughts and suggestions on how to develop the company and increase sales. Authors of the most interesting projects and ideas receive a bonus of up to 15% of their salary.

Some of our best T-shirt prints were originally designed and suggested by employees. Thanks to our employees, we increase the visibility of the company by sponsoring cultural youth events.

A striking example: one of our employees in Tula offered to participate in the holding of municipal sports competitions and evenings in clubs. The creativity and purposefulness of this worker became the key to the fact that our advertising appeared in popular city cafes. Ultimately, sales in the city of Tula increased by 2 times. Similarly, the employee's income also increased - a few months later he became the director of the store.

3 components of successful planning meetings

  1. information component. Make the material interesting and useful for the listeners. If boring information cannot be avoided, try to present it in an unusual way. The information provided at the planning meeting should be useful and exciting. If you're going to have a successful meeting, it's best not to give insipid and dull information.
  2. emotional component. Fascinating material with poor presentation is bad material. Remember the university - it was boring to spend time in some classes, the students literally slept in the classroom, and in others everyone wanted to get to the bottom of the matter and discuss.
  3. The leader who leads the meeting. The authority of the speaker directly affects the assimilation of information. If you haven't reached high rhetorical skills yet, work harder on the first and second points before holding the meeting.

How to conduct planning meetings, avoiding resistance from employees

It's no secret that employees often have a negative attitude towards planning meetings. It is worth understanding the reasons for this perception.

Firstly, the original origin of such planning meetings is associated with people with a time when communication facilities did not allow coordinating the work of people and it was necessary to personally gather with the whole team and discuss important work issues for hours. Because other ways to learn or discuss important points there simply wasn’t, tons of questions, comments and wishes on the work accumulated by the meeting. Therefore, the meeting had to be held for several hours.

Secondly, many office workers are annoyed by the fact that the planning meeting takes up 1/5 of all working time. At the same time, there is not so much to discuss - the boss's speech usually takes up half of the entire meeting.

Thirdly, if you hold a meeting every day, then employees will soon treat it as an event “for show”. Employees will not report detailed and interesting about the progress of work or any changes, because they simply may not happen in such a short time. The main goals of any company are long-term plans, so you should not take valuable time from employees to listen to "things are normal, we are working." Only in critical cases, emergency situations and urgent tasks does it become necessary to hold daily meetings.

How to conduct a planning meeting by choosing the right format

1. Information meeting

You can hold such a planning meeting on Mondays, make it a weekly event for each department of your company, for each head of the department. The purpose of this meeting is to find out what has been accomplished in the past week, what has been achieved, and what is planned for this week. Managers can communicate important information to subordinates and motivate them to work productively. Do not delay the time - it is best to hold a meeting within 30 minutes.

2. Distribution of tasks

This short meeting is best done early in the day. Managers distribute daily tasks and explain them to employees. If there are no questions or important information, such a planning meeting will not take up much working time from employees.

3. Planning meeting

It is necessary to conduct such a planning meeting after all employees have been notified in advance in writing or in electronic format. Let them prepare on the topic, set a meeting time and meeting secretary. Also send the conclusions and results from the meeting to everyone who was present or should be at the planning meeting. It is important to note that such a planning meeting should not be held for too long. If this still cannot be avoided, be sure to arrange time-outs for rest or a snack.

4. Creative planning

If this time you have nothing to offer the team, good option will hold a planning meeting in a non-standard format. It could be a competition best idea or brainstorm.

5. Planning meeting for conflict resolution

Do not forget about the human factor and possible misunderstanding in the team.

The correct position of the boss is to identify and solve such a problem. Holding a meeting for this purpose will be more than ever welcome. You need to give each person the opportunity to explain their position and tell what exactly does not suit them. The format of such a meeting should not be strict, let people talk or argue, arguing their opinion. Once you have identified the difficulties together, you need to overcome them. It is not necessary to take it on yourself, HR specialists and senior managers will help you.

You need to conduct a meeting by choosing an interesting topic for everyone - so that everyone wants to speak, and you have the opportunity to regulate the conversation and adjust its direction.

Summarize the meeting, collect everything said by the participants and present them with the results.

There is no need to warn colleagues from the very beginning that the planning meeting is being held because of a conflict that has arisen. The exception is special meetings organized exclusively to resolve such situations.

How to increase the benefits of planning

Poorly organized planning meetings, meetings and gatherings are absolutely useless and even harmful. Because by themselves they do not create added value, but a huge amount of time can be spent on them.

Learn the rules for organizing effective meetings from the magazine "Commercial Director", which will move the workflow with a minimum of time spent.

How to hold planning meetings daily: a step-by-step algorithm

Step 1. Determine the goals of the morning planning meeting

Each organization must present and plan the results of its work. Based on the set goals, you need to draw up a phased plan for their implementation.

Select the goals from the list that are suitable for your business:

  • Setting goals

The main thing for which it is worth holding collective meetings is task planning. An employee's daily plan should not include more than 3 tasks and 1 focus. Ideally, each employee himself outlines tasks and focuses for the day and reports this to the manager.

To set realistic and achievable goals, use . It is best to plan work in specific numbers. Visualize information: it is better to hold an event in a room with a projector or a board on which you write down the main tasks. Focus on the day specifically mark with a marker and emphasize it during the conversation.

It is best to have each employee write down their plan.

  • Feedback from employees

Very often, employees, faced with a problem or an incomprehensible situation, do not report it to their boss. As a rule, this is discussed between colleagues and is not considered worthy to report to management. It is necessary to establish constant contact with subordinates. Employees should get into the habit of telling the manager about what worries them and excites them in the process of performing their duties.

In this case, the manager needs to hold separate meetings to listen to each problem and respond to it properly, even if he believes that the situation is not worth it. special attention. Also, look for the root of the problem, not the culprit. Assign a specific person responsible for fixing the problem, and allocate a clear deadline for this.

  • Transfer of experience and training

Be the first to speak - tell your colleagues how you yourself would perform the assigned task. Start a discussion, ask employees how to do this or that work better and more fruitfully. You can hold a planning meeting in the format of a game or take a business case so that everyone can participate in the discussion.

You can conduct training: tell or repeat scripts, typical answers, product benefits, company promotions, and the like with colleagues. Involve the entire team in this process.

Do not repeat yourself, teach employees something new every day, develop them!

  • Increasing team spirit

Talk about the company as a close-knit team - use the words “we”, “our team” in your speech.

Report new and interesting things for the last day: what happened yesterday, company news, its successes (even small ones). If you have an internal mailing list, this does not mean that every single person reads it. Therefore, the most interesting and important things can be told again at the planning meeting. If the information is not entirely positive, employees will have the opportunity to discuss a plan of action.

Remember important dates for employees, talk about them (birthdays of the employees themselves, members of their families, children, significant event for the company, and so on).

  • Team motivation

You can hold a meeting in order to charge the team with positive for the coming day. For this you need:

  • Praise one of the employees (best in sales, good quality, gratitude from the client, solving a difficult situation, etc.).
  • When assigning tasks, explain how the work will positively affect the overall goals of the company. Let each employee know that they are important.
  • Use motivational words and phrases: "Let's do it!", "Show what you are capable of!" etc.
  • Show that you believe in each employee, often say phrases such as “We can”, “We will succeed”, “I am sure”, etc.

An important rule to hold productive meetings is to speak only about positive things, do not scold anyone at the planning meeting, do not scold the team. In the morning it is worth talking only about the positive!

Be sure to use all of the goals mentioned above, but not everyone needs meetings at once.

Step 2. We draw up the regulations

Once you've chosen your goals for your morning meetings, you need to figure out how to run them. The regulations can be printed out and hung in the office where the planning meeting is held.

Decide how long you intend to hold the meeting, and write it down in the rules. Fifteen minutes is enough time to have an effective meeting. In addition, make a specific plan: what you will talk about at the meeting. For this you need:

The meeting should be carried out on a positive note. Greet the team, mark one of the employees for the work done and success over the past day. At the end of the meeting, you can congratulate the team, wish them a nice day, or motivate them to work productively.

At the beginning of the planning meeting, report what has been done over the past day. Set new tasks based on what has already been done. After that, you can conduct training or start repetition.

Get the reaction of the team, chat with him at the end of the meeting, so as not to drag out the event. If the topic for discussion is too difficult and requires more than two minutes, take it to a separate planning meeting or assign a specific employee to solve it.

Step 3. Getting ready for the meeting

In order to properly and competently conduct a planning meeting, you should prepare for it in advance. Preparing for the morning meeting is best done in the evening, and be sure to write everything down.

Tasks for the day should be consistent with longer-term goals and take into account the problems that arose from the previous day. Separately, for each item, write down what you will talk about: positive news, problems, recent events, learning.

Step 4. We hold a planning meeting

Start the meeting with a plan. Say hello to the team. Keep track of the time so that the meeting does not last longer than 15 minutes.

During the meeting, observe the reaction of workers to each stage of the meeting. So you can determine what was interesting to the team and what was not. If some information is not of interest to employees, consider whether it can be removed from the plan or the way it is presented can be changed.

You can understand how effectively you conducted a planning meeting by the indicator of the quality of work of employees, the level of sales. If productivity has increased, then the planning meeting was organized correctly.

Expert opinion

How to conduct a non-standard morning planning meeting

Dmitry Grishin,

Chairman of the Board of Directors and one of the founders of Mail.Ru Group in Moscow

For us, holding meetings of an unusual format is a common thing. Each one takes less than half an hour. Planning meetings are open to everyone, any employees can participate, and not just those who are directly related to the topic of the planning meeting. We speak while standing up, in order to somewhat move away from the usual format of work in the workplace.

Finding as many creative ideas as possible to solve the problems that have arisen, even those that seem completely unrealistic, is the main goal with which we started holding such planning meetings. The proposals are criticized strictly to the point, without emotions, speaking only about the technical side of the issue.

Everything proposed by the team is entered into a special database. Holding events of this format means giving employees the opportunity to hear each other and not get hung up on an insignificant problem. Everyone feels involved in a common cause, important for the company, and this, like nothing else, gives an incentive to work.

How to conduct a planning meeting in the department

Each of us understands how much the heads of departments have to do. In addition to the usual work, they take on problem solving and general organization the entire department. The effectiveness of the work of the chief depends on what methods and management tools he uses. Is it worth spending time and holding meetings in this case?

It all depends on the approach of the leader to the issue of planning meetings. In one case, the bosses approach holding planning meetings in a very formal way, even if the company rules require that such meetings be held. Such a leader believes that the main thing is more effort, fewer meetings. Other department heads decide to hold meetings on their own initiative, because they know how effective such a tool is for improving the quality of team work.

If the mentor of an entire department believes that meetings should be held simply because “it is necessary,” then he should not waste time holding planning meetings. Any events organized only for the sake of appearance affect the work only in a negative way. Based on the name itself, a planning meeting is a competent planning of actions to achieve the company's big goals.

Based on the Deming Cycle, the planning meeting is a periodic check (Check) of the work of the team in order to change or redirect the movement (Akt), if necessary.

How often to hold planning meetings in the department? Daily meetings in the department are necessary only for new or inexperienced employees who cannot cope without constant monitoring and advice from superiors. For a more cohesive and experienced team, meetings should be held once a week, on the same day, approximately the same in time and structure of the planning meeting. This is necessary for the purpose of discipline.

Most often, the leader refuses to hold a planning meeting, because he considers it a waste of time. Interaction with the team turns into a brief monologue without feedback from employees. With this approach, most of the functions are lost, except perhaps informational and, in part, disciplining.

For any leader, interacting with a group is much more difficult than interacting with each employee separately. Managing a whole team at once is the skill of an experienced and good boss. Such a leader knows how to conduct a planning meeting correctly: quickly and to the point, while getting a “return” from the group, discussing some issue with them and, based on this, regulating the work of the department. It is best to keep within a half-hour meeting (+- 15 minutes). It is physiologically laid in a person just such a time for the greatest concentration of attention.

The introduction of a new event - planning meetings - will take some time. Often it will take more than one meeting to make such a tool work. If the head of the department begins to listen to the response of the team, he will receive a lot of new information that no one has expressed before. But now the case has turned up - the leader himself asked! It will be necessary to define separate roles for employees and their appointment in the work of the whole group, overcome objections, argue their position the best way. Often, managers do not complete the implementation of a new tool and, being a couple of steps away from the ideal result, return to less good governance, that is, conduct conversations separately with each employee.

10 rules for how to conduct a morning meeting in the sales department

Often sales managers are good at the basic responsibility of talking to people and selling a product, but at the same time they are not at all able to act according to the plan, analyze the work done and work steadily. If the manager has already received a lot of orders for this month, he stops working as actively, makes fewer cold calls, and does not deal with passive clients.

Noticing this trend, the manager can inform the manager about it at the planning meeting, say that his shirking from work has been noticed and controlled. Of course, managers will look for an excuse not to participate in the meeting, arguing that they are busy. You can hold a meeting for an administrative management purpose, when the manager can influence the work and improve it if he notices a decline or an emergency.

To conduct a planning meeting as efficiently as possible, you need to adhere to these rules:

Rule 1. Periodicity

You should have morning meetings at the same time every day, regardless of your mood. Over time, the planning meeting will become a habit and will serve as a signal for managers to start working. There were cases when the absence of a meeting or its poor organization broke the usual way of the day of managers, took away good mood and the desire to work.

At the morning planning meeting, managers must fully recover, wake up and understand - it's time to start working!

Rule 2. Discipline

The 3 keys to a successful planning meeting is to have meetings with a precise structure, defined goals, and the same time. If the rules are followed, the planning meeting has a positive effect on the work of managers, deviation from them, on the contrary, harms work.

The meeting must be held at the same time. Employees must arrive at the office in advance and not be late. You need to tune in to work before and during the meeting, so that you can immediately start working after the planning meeting is over. Each manager must prepare in advance for the planning meeting, set goals for the day and calculate all the indicators so as not to take time from the whole team during the meeting and not be distracted by himself.

If you choose to have a game-based meeting, allow approximately 45 minutes for this. This is more than for a regular planning meeting, but very effective for the work of the team and the financial performance of the company.

Rule 3. Vigor

The morning meeting sets the mood for the employees for the whole day.

If you hold a boring and uninteresting planning meeting, then there will be no positive effect from work that day. Give information clearly and interestingly, do not let the team go off topic or ask about things that do not concern common work commands.

At the planning meeting, it is worth talking only about what applies to all employees. Such an event is a collective work, and not just time to sit out.

Rule 4: Train Your Managers Constantly

Every time at the end of the working day, ask the managers how the work went - what difficulties arose, what objections from customers could not be overcome. Summarize the information to spend part of the morning meeting, sorting out the situation with the team.

First, let the manager himself describe the problem that has arisen. After that, briefly review the theory on the topic, such as an argumentation section. After that, arrange a brainstorming game during the game: the role of the client will be taken by the manager who is faced with the difficulty, and the rest of the subordinates offer options for solving the problem.

The discussion should be conducted in such a way that each employee takes part in the search for a solution. You do not need to explain on your own and each time how to cope with the difficulty, let the team find a way out by interacting with each other.

Such an approach with daily learning will enable managers to constantly improve and not be afraid to face a problem.

Rule 5

The rule is very clear from the name. If you stop controlling the work of managers, you will not see effective work.

Rule 6. Team motivation

When conducting a planning meeting, report not only the overall results for the previous day, but also highlight the managers with the best and worst performance. This will not negatively affect the work of employees, but will only give an incentive to work just as well or to improve if something failed yesterday.

It is important to note not only quantitative indicators, but also the quality of work. Praise the managers who communicated with the client better than others. You can listen to the conversations of employees yourself or apply for a report to the quality control department.

Rule 7. Specificity in plans

When planning his day at the morning meeting, the manager must decide what sales he will make, who he will meet, how much he will receive. It is necessary to get used to holding the event in such a way that managers always give out this data in specific numbers and names of organizations. Let the manager clearly name the companies he will call and go to, even if he does not have specific responses from clients scheduled for today.

In addition, the daily plan should be part of the monthly goal. In other words, if the monthly sales plan is 500,000 rubles, then the salesperson cannot plan to receive 15,000 rubles per day, since such a pace will not lead to the completion of a long-term task.

It is imperative to deal with the objections of your own employees who do not want to set themselves a high bar, referring to superstition or simple discontent. Teach employees to set ambitious goals.

Do not forget that the plan must be real and feasible, and not just said. The manager must understand that the task set for the day is real, and strive to achieve it.

Rule 8. Check the readiness of the whole team

Before you send your subordinates to their places, check their readiness. It's about both about external resources (materials for presentations, business cards, telephone databases, etc.), as well as internal, “human” ones – whether everyone is in the right mood or you need to work with someone separately to motivate them for productive activities.

Rule 9

To complete the planning meeting, come up with a bright motivating phrase that will serve as a signal to start work - for example, “For business!”, “Forward!” etc.

Such a phrase will serve as an anchor that will additionally energize the team.

Rule 10. Visualization

To run a planner with greater effectiveness, it is imperative to design a board on which the results of the meeting and the rating will be attached, so that employees can see the overall achievements, their performance and how close they are to the implementation of the monthly plan.

How to hold a planning meeting every week

If you want to conduct a planning meeting effectively, you need to consider two conditions. First of all, the time allotted for the meeting is not to be long, about half an hour. The second is recording during the planning meeting. The goals voiced by the leaders must be written down.

The weekly planner consists of four stages:

Stage 1. Announcement of the company's goals

It is best to hold weekly meetings by starting with a recap of the firm's primary or long-term goal. For example, "Prosperous company with an extensive market." After that, name the task for a shorter period - like "Increase the organization's income for this year by 3 times."

Stage 2. Heads of departments tell in turn what they did on last week to achieve the goal

It is necessary to conduct a planning meeting in order to find out specific information from the leaders about the work done. General phrases, uninformative speech, such as "We managed to increase the efficiency of the department by 10%" should not be allowed. In such a case, it is worth asking correctly what measures were taken.

If the head of the department continues to give out information general, the leader of the planning meeting should interrupt him and directly ask if there is information worthy of review at the meeting. If not, you need to move the meeting forward, passing the floor to another unit.

If you hold meetings of this format, you can clearly see the results of the work of each department of the company. In addition, this way it turns out which of the leaders are working hard for the good of the organization, and who are just pretending.

Stage 3. A goal is set for the next week for the entire company, and the facilitatorseeksthe consent of the participants for this purpose

Give each leader the opportunity to tell what his department is going to do this week, how he will carry out the plan. Record the planned tasks in a journal.

In addition, department heads will have the opportunity to interact with each other: ask another department to do something if joint efforts are needed. After discussion, such goals should also be recorded in a journal.

Stage 4. The meeting leader asks if they are ready to really achieve this week's goal and announces the start.

This form of planning helps to achieve the most positive results. Heads of departments begin to work hard and achieve high performance in their department or vacate the position for more valuable personnel. It is with the help of such meetings that one can understand which of the colleagues is making maximum efforts, and which is only creating appearances.

Expert opinion

The best option for weekly planning meetings is multi-level

Vladimir Kiselev,

General Director, partner of CJSC "Company SHERP" in Moscow

Weekly planning meetings are mandatory events for every company, where the results of work are reviewed and discussed and goals for the next week are set. It is best to hold meetings at each level. First, heads of departments and CEO, and after that planning meetings are held in each department with his immediate supervisor. At secondary briefings, executives may also announce information that applies to the entire company and each employee.

It is important to hold a planning meeting not only within the strict framework of the stated topic, but also to enable employees to find out information of interest and discuss work issues. The role of such meetings is very great: this is how the team learns about new goals, changes in the plan or other news. The CEO must hold meetings with employees who do not participate in weekly planning meetings once a month or quarter.

How to conduct planning meetings with creativity

1. Choose an unusual place

Meetings are not limited to the office. Look for beautiful place in your city, promenade, pedestrian street or cafe. The main thing is that you can quickly get there from work and to work.

A place that colleagues will like: a coffee shop, an embankment, a park area. The only caveat is that the place should be located close to the office so that everyone can quickly get there.

2. Schedule a non-standard time

Try to hold meetings not in the morning, but, for example, at lunch (only without leaving the team without food) or 30 minutes before the end of the working day (this speeds up the pace of work!).

3. Materials used

Give the office not to all participants, but a set of paper and a pen for 2-3 people. Thus, they themselves will decide who and what will write.

4. Take away everyone's phones before the meeting

A good solution is to hold the meeting without distractions. At first, this will cause some embarrassment and confusion, but then it will significantly increase the concentration and involvement of participants in solving problems.

5. Change the format of the event

You can hold a planning meeting by phone or Skype to diversify the usual rhythm when everyone is used to sitting in a meeting room.

Expert opinion

Can a planning meeting with cigars, hookah and whiskey be effective

Nikolai Novoselov,

Director of ArtNauka, Moscow

Based personal experience, I can say that the increase in the number of planning meetings has a negative impact on the productivity of the company. We tried to conduct an “office silence day” and made sure that this approach gives a better result than the planning meeting itself. Unfortunately, this method does not suit us completely, we cannot spend a day without meetings every week, as we are engaged in the field of the event.

Employees would like to participate in a planning meeting more if they hold meetings with a cigar and drink whiskey. In such an almost informal environment, colleagues can say much more and express their opinions honestly. I was not afraid that familiarity would appear in the team if such planning meetings were held. Relations between employees have not changed, people just feel more relaxed, express their opinion about the situation and give good advice.

How to conduct planning meetings using the experience of successful companies

Properly holding meetings with the team does not always mean organizing planning meetings of the usual format, when everyone gathers and sits in chairs. IN modern companies, in which non-standard methods quickly take root, are increasingly trying to hold meetings standing up. Meetings "on the legs" help to get rid of empty, drawn-out conversations, to hear only the most important information.

Atomic Object, a software development company, long ago decided to hold meetings on its feet. Thanks to this creative format, management achieves maximum results: no unnecessary reasoning, clearly posed questions and correct answers. Practice shows that standing meetings take no more than 7 minutes - the team plans the day, listens to instructions and immediately begins to work. If you hold meetings of this form, employees will not have the opportunity to relax, and they will have to act and speak more actively.

The Wall Street Journal reports that even during the First World War, it was customary to hold short planning meetings, since slowness was unacceptable. Later, a similar format was transferred to business, in which there was a need to speed up interaction and information exchange.

The benefits of the new meeting format have been scientifically proven. Scientific researcher Alain Bluedorn of the University of Missouri found that holding meetings while standing means taking less time from employees, but achieving, if not better, then absolutely the same results compared to regular meetings.

Poll results Version One conducted in 2011, about 80% of employees out of 6,000 respondents confirmed that it is customary for their companies to hold short meetings every day.

In addition to gliders "on their feet", Western companies have come up with other innovations for more efficient work.

For example, in a company Facebook decided to hold short meetings 15 minutes before the break, thereby initially setting the duration of the meeting. Employees say that this method brings good results: people speak briefly and only on the topic.

If it is necessary to fight discipline in the company, to reduce the number of delays, it is necessary to hold short meetings. It is better not to invite latecomers to the discussion, because, not knowing some of the information, they will interfere with the meeting and drag out time by asking unnecessary questions.

In company AdobeSystems decided to hold planning meetings and at the same time deal with delays. They even provided for penalties for those who come at the wrong time. The time lost through the fault of latecomers was equated with the time that could have been spent on developing programs. So the penalty for each delay is $1.

Company steel case invented its own peculiarity - the signal for the beginning of the meeting is the composition of Elvis Presley - "A Little Less Conversation" or "Less chatter".

If the employees of the organization do not have time to conduct not only a regular, but also a short planning meeting, you can hold a meeting using communication tools. In such cases, you can choose to communicate via chat or email to the company in order to convey the main necessary information colleagues. At the same time, holding meetings “on the feet” is still more effective than any other planning meetings.

Information about experts

Hasmik Gevorgyan, CEO and co-owner of the Provocatsia chain of stores, Moscow. LLC "Provocation-production". Field of activity: production and sale of clothing and accessories with provocative prints. Territory: head office - in Moscow; production - in Tver; outlets and shops - in more than 100 cities of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Number of employees: 55 (in the parent company).

Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-founder of Mail.Ru Group, Moscow. Dmitry Grishin has been the head of the board of directors since March 2012. In 2005, he became one of the co-founders of Mail.Ru Group, where from November 2010 to October 2016 he served as CEO of the company (Russia). Dmitry has been with Mail.Ru since 2000; in 2001 he was appointed technical director of the company, from 2003 to 2010 he served as general director. Graduated from the Faculty of Robotics and Integrated Automation of the Moscow State technical university them. N. E. Bauman. In 2012, he founded GrishinRobotics, a venture capital firm to invest in consumer robotics worldwide.

Vladimir Kiselev, General Director, partner of SHERP Company CJSC, Moscow. Vladimir Kiselev - General Director and senior partner of the consulting "Company SHERP" since 2000. He has been working in the field of personnel management since 1996, since 1998 he headed the personnel management service of a large diversified holding. CJSC "Company SHERP" exists since 2000, is engaged in the formation of highly efficient management teams and the development of clients' business, using innovative proprietary technology.

Nikolai Novoselov, Director of ArtNauka, Moscow. IP Novoselova T.A. (Art Science). Field of activity: conducting shows, team building and presentations based on scientific experiments. Territory: head office in Moscow, eight representative offices in Russia. Number of staff: 10. Number of shows per year: 340.

And now we list the steps necessary for a quality planning meeting.
Before the planning meeting, the leader appoints a person (secretary) in order to fix the plans of the participants. And he brings him up to date, lets him read this article so that the secretary understands all the nuances of holding planning meetings. The rest of the planning participants do NOT need to read this article. The secretary makes a table where he enters all the participants in the planning meeting:
No., Photo, Last name First name, Tel., E-mail, position, Task for the next week and deadlines, Task for the past week, Notes: Marks of attendance at the planning meeting, completion of last week's tasks, etc.

The secretary should make an audio recording of the meeting and after the meeting transcribe the conversation to record everything that was planned by the people, in order to then send this information to those who should carry out this activity.

Then, at the planning meeting, the leader announces the beginning of the planning meeting, greets those gathered, introduces the participants to each other (if there are new participants in the planning meeting) and says the company's goals for the long term, for the short term, for the period until the next planning meeting:

We start our planning. I welcome everyone! Our global goals: to become number 1 in our industry, for this we need our development statistics to be higher than those of competitors. Our goal is to open 200 more restaurants by the end of the year. Our goal for the week is to sell 30 franchises. Now I will introduce our secretary: This is Anna Ivanova. This is very useful person for all of us, it will record the things that we plan to do at the planning meeting so that we do not forget about them and will send us to email planer transcript. Anna, this is Vladimir Petrov, Head of Purchasing. This is Yulia Sidorova, head of HR. This is Marya Ivanovna, chief accountant. Etc.

Then the leader warns that during the speech it is necessary to say the Surname, Name and position, for the transcript, so that others, when reading, can understand who spoke.
- During the planning meeting, so that it would be convenient for us to read the transcript that Anna will send to us, I ask you to say your last name and first name and name your position before taking the floor.

And then monitor compliance with this rule. For example someone says:
- I don't think we can do that.
The leader interrupts and kindly says:
- Please introduce yourself and state your position.
- Head of Procurement Department Vladimir Petrov. Well, I think that we won't be able to buy it this week, because we need to announce a tender, and it will take 2 weeks.

At this time, the secretary should be thinking in the present tense, should be able to concentrate on what is happening, remember and make notes who says this or that phrase, for example, if the leader forgot to ask to introduce himself. And then she restores the data by audio, makes a transcript, sends it to the participants. Delimits what everyone should do and sends out personal tasks. Then calls people and reminds that she sent tasks to the post office to complete and makes sure that her letter is received.

Then the leader gives the floor in turn to each participant in the planning meeting, so that everyone says WHAT SPECIFIC has been done since the last planning meeting, what specific results were achieved, and not what he did, or why something did not work out for him. The leader is careful to ensure that the participants do not obscure the specific results of their activities. For example, Vladimir Petrov says:
- I prepared this week the documentation for the tender.
Supervisor:
- what exactly has been done?
- I have prepared requirements of 25 points for the tender participant, agreed with the financial department the amount at which it would be profitable for us to purchase this equipment. Etc…

The facilitator then asks the speaker what he plans to do in general and what he plans to do before the next meeting. He asks about the timing of each case and what he needs to successfully complete the task. And also the head of the planning meeting ensures that the plans of the participants correspond common purpose. It is possible to prepare a table with eight columns before the performance, in which the leader puts marks in the form of “+” and “-” signs: Surname Name, presence at the planning meeting, long term plan, due date, weekly plan, due date, compliance with the overall goal, notes (to note what the subordinate needs to complete the task and other notes)
Supervisor:
- Vladimir, tell us about your current tasks and plans.
- I'm going to hold a tender in order to purchase the necessary equipment at 10-20% cheaper.
- How long will it take you to conduct this tender?
- It will take me 2 weeks to conduct the tender.
- Well, what do you plan to do this week before the next meeting?
- I need to send out the requirements for participation in the tender to the equipment suppliers.
- How many companies do you plan to send these requirements to?
- Well, I think there are 10 companies.
- Good. Do you have anything else to add, do you plan to do anything else this week? (or limit yourself to the words: “Is that all?”, “Are you done?”, “Do you have anything else to add?”)

Then the leader thanks the previous participant and passes the floor to the next one. And he acts according to the same scheme, with the sole purpose of extracting SPECIFICITY from people.
What did they do last week?
What exactly are they planning to do next week?
Specific NUMBERS and TERMS are needed so that at the next planning meeting you can clearly see whether a person has completed the task that he has set for himself.
And in case of failure, in no case should you listen to excuses, you just need to ask:
- Anna, what did the purchasing department plan to do this week?
- Send ten companies requirements for participation in the tender.
- Made?
- Not.
- How long will it take you to complete it?
- Another week.
- Good.

And if a person directs the “Shadow on the wattle fence”, evades, does not say the specifics of what he did last week, we do not give him the opportunity to express plans for the next week, because he has not yet fulfilled what he set for himself this week, leader just says:
- Understandably. The tasks planned by the purchasing department were not completed. Let's not waste time and move on to the HR service. I give the floor to Yulia Sidorova.
- Yulia Sidorova, head of HR department. This week we interviewed 150 candidates for the position of sales managers, 15 of them went on probation, ...

This is how the planning is conducted and the execution of tasks is controlled.

What does the lack of consistency in holding planning meetings lead to?
People are getting discouraged, they understand that you can do nothing, and you can “talk your teeth” and no one will detect their inaction.

Therefore, our task is to ensure that all participants in the planning meeting clearly see those who are acting, and clearly see those who are inactive. And it becomes very uncomfortable for idle employees, and they either correct themselves and get involved in work, or leave the team themselves, because people cannot be in a place where they are not comfortable, and they can be comfortable only if they either give results, or they can hide their ineffectiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly bring the results or their absence to light.
Reward employees for results, for good statistics, but not for words. Encourage people publicly - make dedicated, LOYAL employees stronger, develop them, educate and empower them. Find more productive people and make your people more productive. Keep the emotional background in the team at a positive level, and productivity grows significantly.

How to organize and conduct a morning five-minute meeting (operational meeting). Rules, tips, recommendations. (10+)

Tips for holding an operational meeting

An operational meeting can be a very effective management tool, or it can turn into a powerful absorber of working time, greatly reducing work efficiency. How to make the five-minute RAM bring benefit, not harm?

Goals of the meeting

How often should a meeting be held? It depends on what we are doing it for. How quickly the situation changes, how often it is necessary to check whether the work plan is being carried out and adjust it.

Important! At the operational meeting, it is impossible to make any responsible decision that requires elaboration and discussion. Such decisions are made at larger meetings. Their implementation is described in the article to which the link was above. Planner is needed in order to:

  • or make sure everything goes according to plan,
  • either to understand that there are minor deviations that can be solved in the current order, through advice or some help to the stragglers,
  • or establish that more serious adjustments or new design solutions are required, appoint those responsible for the study of the issue, the preparation and holding of a full-scale meeting on the specified issue.

Plan, operating rules

Based on the foregoing, we can formulate the basic rules:

Work plan. There must be a detailed work plan. This plan should be as detailed as the five minutes are often. For example, if we hold an operational meeting every day, then the plan should be detailed daily, at least a couple of weeks in advance. Otherwise, there will simply be nothing to discuss at the planning meeting. It makes no sense to listen to an employee's report on the work done during the day, if it is not known what he was supposed to do for that day.

Regulations. A minimum of time should be allotted for the presentation of each participant. It usually takes about five minutes, but you can get by with less time. There may be special cases when, for example, an employee reports news. He needs to be given time based on the amount of news. The discussion is given the same amount of time as the report. During the discussion, you can ask clarifying questions, give short advice, agree on what the employee has to do before the next planning meeting. If it is not possible to discuss the issue within the allotted time on the RAM, then it is necessary to plan its study after it, with the participation of only those employees who are related to the issue. This will allow you not to distract and not waste the time of others who have nothing to do with the issue.

Protocol. All decisions made must be recorded in the minutes. Then at the next planning meeting, we simply take the minutes of the previous one and check whether all the participants did what was planned at the previous meeting. If an employee was unable to complete a task, you need to decide how to help this employee. It is foolish to expect that if he does not complete the task in the first week, he will do it in the next. It is necessary to find out what difficulties the employee stopped, how these difficulties can be overcome by joint efforts.

Is the meeting helpful?

Properly organized five-minutes allow you to:

  • All employees to be aware of the progress of work.
  • Each employee has a clear idea of ​​what he needs to do right now.
  • Quickly diagnose when an employee has encountered difficulties, promptly help, advise, push.

An example of a meeting protocol

I'm taking notes on a spreadsheet. In the first vertical column I have listed all the participants of the planning meeting. Dates are on the first line. There are two columns for each date. The first is filled out at the planning meeting on this date, and the second - at the next planning meeting based on the results of the past week, simultaneously with filling out plans for the next week. The first column can be frozen, and the rest can be gradually shifted to the left to see only the past and current dates. And if necessary, you can see the previous dates.

15.07.13 22.07.13
The task Result The task Result
Head of Support Department Respond to customer inquiries about delivery times new version Prepare a list of unresolved issues for implementation at the client 1 Sign the Act with the client 2 Deadlines are set, information is provided to customers The list of problems is prepared and submitted to the development department The act is not signed, there are comments Track work on the preparation of a new version Work with the development department to work out customer comments 2
Head of Development Department Prepare a new module for demonstration Make a change in the accounting mechanism Eliminate an error in the reporting form The new module was not prepared, errors were found Changes were made to the accounting mechanism The reporting form was changed Together with the support department, develop a list of problems for the client 1 Together with the support department, work out the comments of the client 2 Together with the sales department, prepare the module for demonstration
Head of Sales Department Prepare and send to 10 customers proposals for the supply of a new module Conduct a demonstration of the new module at customers 3 and 4 Commercial offers prepared and sent Demonstration not held due to the unavailability of the new module Send commercial offers 10 more clients. Track the preparation of a new module for demonstration
Head of methodological department Prepare an overview of changes in legislation Review prepared Review the request from client 1 to ensure it is consistent with the accepted methodology

Planning is a derivative of the English plan, short work meeting dedicated to the progress of the implementation of the planned plan. According to their typology, all planning meetings can be divided into categories according to three criteria - specific, temporal and quantitative.

According to the specific criterion, all planning meetings are divided into reporting (short meetings at which managers report on the progress of the relevant tasks), discussion (briefings on the possible change in the chosen path to achieve a particular goal) and motivational (meetings at which tasks are distributed and roles are determined in the process of working on a question, task).

According to the time criterion, the planning meeting can be a daily, weekly, monthly process.

According to the quantitative criterion, the planning meeting can be either mass (for all employees) or closed (for a separate initiative group, managers, board of directors of the company.)

Why hold a planner?

If you organize this process as a good tradition before the start of the working day, it will help discipline the team (reduce the number of morning lates), more clearly outline goals and objectives for employees (after all, as you know, a rational plan for the day is much more effective than a plan for six months) , will make it possible to see the real results of the work more clearly (in the event that the reporting of the team to the leader and the leader to the team become mandatory elements of the planning meeting). In addition to the benefits already mentioned, a well-executed morning meeting can energize employees, increase productivity, and encourage effective work throughout the day. This psychological aspect certainly plays important role in establishing positive relationship between the employee and the employer, and also contributes to team building.

Why do many people consider planning meetings a relic of the past?

Firstly, the very emergence of this process, most people refer to those times when they didn’t even hear about the telephone, but they didn’t even know what the Internet and multimedia technologies were. It turns out that the only way to meet live and discuss important working moments were just the same planning meetings. Due to the lack of operational means of communication, a lot of questions accumulated, and such an action took a lot of time (on average, three to four hours). On this occasion, a well-known American economist once remarked: “If there are planning meetings in your company, then you are on the right track. It remains only to fire all those who go there, and leave all those who are working at this time.

Secondly, most office workers have a negative attitude towards planning meetings just because about 20% of the time is devoted to this, and, according to many of them, the boss’s speech lasts, on average, half the time allotted for this process.

Thirdly, if planning meetings in the company are held daily, then soon this will certainly turn into a kind of formality. After all, most of the tasks that successful businessman, long-term, and a daily report in two sentences will sound like this: "It's okay, we're working on it." The need for a daily planning meeting usually pops up at the moment when the company begins the implementation of a new strategic task in a critically short time, or during a crisis. At such moments, it is really necessary to constantly monitor the situation, to monitor the slightest changes.

Regulations

Any, even the shortest planning meeting should have its own rules. One way or another, it helps to work out pressing issues much more productively, to make the process more dynamic and efficient. It is good manners to send out the regulations to employees in the evening so that they can think over all the issues raised and come up with a constructive, meaningful proposal. Among other things, it is worth considering that by the time the morning meeting is held, each employee must have a copy of the regulations on hand. It is also important to assign responsibility to a certain person who would keep track of time (if the speaker gets out of the time limit described in the regulations, this delays the process of holding the meeting and, as a result, negatively affects the mood of the team).

To conduct or not to conduct? That is the question

The planning meeting is certainly an important process, at least in the context of timely goal-setting and motivation of employees, but it's time to go beyond the ordinary understanding of this term. Perhaps it is not so important to gather the whole team every day in a stuffy office, but to master the conference technology in Skype. It is also important to take into account the aspect that a constructive planning meeting should last no more than 15-20 minutes. Reporting on the activities of each department can be accepted and discussed with managers during the day, and the morning time can be devoted exclusively to the alignment of forces, the definition of tasks and priorities.

In any case, each entrepreneur chooses his management concept, however, in order to understand a little more carefully whether short meetings are necessary for your workforce, it is worth weighing the pros and cons:

Discipline the team

Possibility of morning motivation of employees;

Clear setting of goals and objectives;

The opportunity to be creative and hold a planning meeting in an unconventional style;

Protracted planning meetings tire and reduce the efficiency of employees;

Unscheduled planning meetings are usually ineffective.