The Daily Huddle, The Weekly Meeting, & The Monthly Managerial Meeting
HR Meetings Policy
Purpose
Your company’s progressive meeting policy and procedures are designed to several touch points in the company to stay updated on important projects and goals. Setting up three types of meetings is crucial to scale up this organization in a healthy manner. Regular meetings offer three powerful advantages:
- They save the organization time – when a communication rhythm is established, information moves through the organization accurately and quickly. The organization will work more productively and address issues in a timelier manner.
- They reduce hassle – prescheduling regular meetings acts as placeholders in everyone’s calendar thus reducing the hassle of setting them up each week.
- They make it easier for the organization to attain goals – regular meetings allow for important discussions to unfold around new opportunities, strategic concerns, and bottlenecks as they arise to ensure the organization stays on track to achieve goals.
The three meetings are the daily huddle, the weekly meeting, and the monthly meeting: with the most important of the three being the short, but powerful daily huddle. Outlined below are the steps of PIP Printing’s meeting policy and procedures.
Procedure
The procedure for each type of meeting is listed within the meeting type. Keep reading to learn more.
The Daily Huddle
Meeting 1: The Daily Huddle (15 minutes)
This meeting creates an opportunity for the organization to bring attention to what’s occurring in the next 24 hours. The importance of it is to discuss tactical issues (the everyday issues that pop up) and provide updates. In the first five minutes of the huddle, each employee will spend up to 30 seconds sharing ONLY things that relate to key activities, meetings, decisions, etc. The next five minutes are spent verbalizing the daily metrics the organization monitors. Look for patterns and trends which can give a jump on the competition and the organization’s challenges. The last five minutes are the most important agenda item. Employees should bring up constraints and concerns that could prevent them from having a great next 24 hours. The brutal facts need to be shared, and the meeting facilitator needs to see the patterns of “stucks” to understand what underlying issues must be addressed.
Guidelines of The Daily Huddle:
- Part 1: Timing – Huddles should be held 15 minutes after the business opens. They must ALWAYS start on time, whether everyone is present or not. All calls can be returned after the huddle. Walk-ins will need immediate attention from the CSR (who can discuss concerns with management if the meeting is over before the customer leaves).
- Part 2: Setting – Pick a place in the office to meet for every huddle. It should always be in the same location. Do not sit down during the meeting but stand or perch on a stool instead (this will keep the meeting short).
- Part 3: Who Attends – All employees should attend every huddle. As the organization grows, department managers can share, but all employees must attend the huddle. The rule of thumb is to have more people in fewer meetings, rather than fewer people in more meetings.
- Part 4: Frequency – There will only be one daily huddle. However, as the organization grows, two huddles may be necessary. One for each department so employees can meet with managers and then managers will huddle with owners/leaders.
- Part 5: Who Runs the Meeting – The person chosen to run the meeting should be the person in the organization who is naturally structured. This will keep meetings running on time. This person will also be responsible for stopping the meeting whenever people get off on a tangent that doesn’t require everybody’s attention.
- Part 6: The Agenda –
- What’s Up?
- What are the daily metrics?
- Where are you stuck?
As previously discussed in detail:
- First 5 minutes: What’s Up?
- Second 5 minutes: Daily Metrics.
- Last 5 minutes: What are Your Stucks?
Productive Tips:
- If some people dial in regularly, put everyone on a conference call. There’s nothing worse than having a few people huddled around a speaker phone every day.
- You can use daily huddles to keep projects between companies/suppliers/customers on time and on budget.
- Team members should share a “stuck” even if they don’t think there’s anyone on the team who can help them resolve it. Verbalizing the issue is likely to spur unexpected action for help.
- Anytime somebody goes two days without reporting a constraint, you can bet there’s a bigger problem lurking. So, challenge the team member who reports, “Everything is fine!”
- Set the start of the daily huddle at an odd time, like 8:08 or 16:16. People are more likely to be on time than if you schedule the meeting for the quarter-hour or half-hour.
- It’s equally important to end on time. Use a timer for the first few weeks and end the meeting on time even if the agenda isn’t complete. Team members will learn to get to the point and move on to the next item.
- Plan 1 minute per person, meaning that an eight-person team should expect an eight-minute daily huddle.
Things to Avoid:
- Don’t pile too much into the daily huddle, or it’s going to extend past the 15-minute limit and people will start to resent the meeting. Remember, the daily huddle is just one part of your meeting rhythms. Save the wider issues for meetings that can fit them.
- Don’t have one daily huddle for each internal project if many of the project teams share many of the same members. This could mean each team member could end up in three to five daily huddles, which is unworkable. The solution is to host one daily huddle involving all team members associated with the projects. Only the project leads provide updates, and then team members spend the balance of the 15 minutes self-organizing into ad hoc groups to discuss items of interest.
- Avoid checking up on whether someone did something the previous day. Team members will start feeling like they are being micromanaged. In general, looking forward is great management; looking backward is micromanagement. Avoid using videoconferencing, which adds one more level of technological complexity. The exceptions are fixed-based operations that communicate every day.
The Weekly Meeting
Meeting 2: The Weekly Meeting (60 to 90 minutes)
This meeting involves a more-formal setting (i.e.: conference room) and focuses on the organization’s #1 priority (which is set prior to the meeting). This meeting will give way to one or two important topics around the priority. Each meeting will give the organization an opportunity to resolve 50 to 100 important things in a year and bring the organization closer to the #1 priority. (This meeting is not for daily issues discussed during The Daily Huddle as this will clog up the weekly meetings.)
Weekly meetings are action oriented. They are focused on addressing key issues and making decisions, not reviews. These meetings are attended by all employees, including managers, and CEOs. Collectively, these meetings, over time, will move an organization towards priority #1. They should always occur on the same day of the week at the same time of the day (right before lunch, during lunch – working lunch, or just before the end of the day). Requirements of The Weekly Meeting include:
The Agenda:
- 5 minutes (Share Good News) – The agenda should start with 5 minutes of sharing good news, both professional and personal. This helps all employees connect on a human level with one another.
- 10 minutes (The Priorities) – Next, the facilitator of the meeting should review the status of the pre-set priorities and discuss any gaps in progress. Also review any metrics not reported in daily huddles.
- 10 minutes (Customer & Employee Feedback) – During this time, review the feedback from customers and employees. What issues are cropping up day after day? What are people hearing?
- 30 to 60 minutes (One or Two Topics) – Lastly, this portion of the meeting is where focus should shift to 1 or 2 topics based on patterns and trends from the daily huddles, progress on your priorities/theme, feedback from your employees and customers, and/or the opportunities and challenges that have surfaced.
- Other topics: Potential partnerships
- Any major upcoming event that needs decisions made.
**Topics can be prepared the day before and emailed to all attendees so they can prepare as well.
The last few minutes of every meeting summarize “Who said they are going to do what and when” and have the admin email the notes from the meeting and summary to everyone. This will keep everyone on the same page.
Finally, close the meeting by asking each person for one work or phrase of reaction that sums up the meeting for them. This will allow the facilitator of the meeting to gain insight to what everyone’s thinking and feeling and if there is a sense of any lingering issues or conflicts that can be followed up on later.
OPTIONAL: The CEO can send out a weekly email to all employees updating them on the status of the #1 priority and other significant developments inside the company and industry.
- Employees want to hear from their leadership and appreciate the sense of being on the inside provided by this kind of email.
The Monthly Management Meeting
Meeting 3: The Monthly Management Meeting (Half-Day)
The Monthly Management Meeting’s purpose is to get management together and grow them as leaders. All senior, middle, and frontline managers come together to learn and collaboratively address one or two big issues. This meeting can be onsite for smaller organizations or off-site for larger ones.
Clarify Roles:
- Facilitator – This person will start the discussions, ensure they run on time, and keep all attendees on track with the agenda. This person works with the organizer to determine the agenda in advance, ensure all prep work (if it’s needed) is distributed, and assembles slides or visuals should they be needed.
- Organizer – This person secures the dates and locations for the meeting and ensures the meeting space is properly set up with the needed supplies or technology (i.e.: flip charts, markers, whiteboards, eraser, ordering lunch or snacks). This person may also help with the agenda and slides and coordinate with the team to be sure all attendees are prepared.
- Monthly Meeting Note Taker – This team member keeps the official meeting minutes (the Actions or Who-What-When’s of the meeting). The notes should be recorded and shared via email to all attendees.
(This meeting can be an all-day event if ownership decides to incorporate leadership development training time.)
The Agenda:
Share the agenda prior to the meeting so attendees know what to expect. Allow time for employee recognition (i.e.: celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries, major accomplishments for the month) at the beginning of the meeting.
- Open the Meeting – The opening should connect organization strategy, culture, core values, core purpose, and the BHAG (big hairy audacious goal). Ask for examples of attendees living the core values, or have each attendee submit stories in advance and give out an award. Make it meaningful for the team, using the opportunity to connect with your organization’s foundational strategy.
- Icebreaker – Get creative and have some fun or keep it simple and share a round of victories/good news from the group. The icebreaker can be combined with the opening of the meeting by having each person share a short core values story to break the ice.
- Alignment Around Meeting Objectives – Be sure to always open the meeting by sharing a clear objective so everyone knows why they are here and what they hope to accomplish.
- Monthly Meeting Update – This update is provided by the CEO, President, or Founder to address management directly and share key updates (this will help management understand the business and financial numbers well so each manager can make good decisions to move the organization in the right direction). These updates will cover where the organization is based on budgets and reviewing financial KPIs (KPI – Key Performance Indicator – Scorecards are a part of long-term success and essential to any managing strategy to drive organizational performance). An alternative to sharing financials that should always be shared is the organization’s state of affairs and progress on the organization’s main goals for the quarter.
- Department Key Project Updates – Take time in The Monthly Meeting to hear from each department manager and ask questions will help break down unintended silos. Communicating goals and gaining alignment between departments is challenging work that shouldn’t go to waste by not spending time communicating about the progress on projects.
- Set a time limit for each presentation. Use a visible timer to hold each presenter accountable.
- Set a clear agenda for the project updates time. Give parameters so each manager communicates the right information. (Ex.: Each manager gets 10 minutes to provide (1) Status of top 1-3 KPIs for their department, (2) Recent department successes, (3) Any current obstacles.)
- Make the updates interactive. For example, if the status updates are for alignment, build in time for clarification of questions (10 minutes for presentation and 5 minutes for questions). Use a Parking Lot to capture items that need further discussion after the meeting.
- Professional Development or Collaboration (Specific Agenda Items) – This portion of the meeting is for specific agenda items that will change monthly. Half day meetings should only include one topic while all day meetings can include a few. In this portion of the meeting, managers should participate in a professional development learning session or work together to solve a problem.
- Start at the end. (What results the department is trying to improve on through this experience?) Use the professional development budget wisely by choosing topics that will impact the organizational results in a positive way.
- Consider bringing in an expert (if there is enough budget for it). Consider leadership development programs and professional facilitators.
- Design the experience carefully. Always consider who is in the room and the learning objectives (never cram a long workshop into a short amount of time).
- Plan for feedback and follow-up. Mangers will not learn from the experience if there’s no time for follow-up. For professional development to be effective, a plan to apply the key learning and leadership accountability must be applied. Feedback should come after the meeting by having each manager briefly report on what they applied from the training in the next monthly meeting.
- Closing The Monthly Meeting – The purpose of closing the meeting is to give everyone a final opportunity to be heard and to verify what they have gained or learned from the meeting. Closing the meeting effectively can be done in a few ways.
- The note-taker can share the Actions or the Who-What-When’s that came from the discussion. As well as reviewing what’s left in the Parking Lot and deciding when those items will be handled and by whom.
- Ask each person to share a key takeaway or something that was learned in the meeting. (If time is short, have them share one-word or one-phrase about how they feel at the end of the meeting.)
- Ask for feedback on the meeting itself. Have each person share one thing they would keep and one thing they would do differently at the next meeting. This ensures the goal of a productive monthly meeting is met.
If you want to learn more about KPI Scorecards for your industry, click here. If you would like The Traveling Admin to create personalized HR policies for your company, schedule your FREE 30 minute consultation today!
Source Credits: growthinstitute.com, rythemsystems.com
Writer: Jennifer Brown
