Ending the epidemic  At EOS, we’re here to help business leaders find the cure. Putting a structure into meetings that ensures they are productive can help save valuable time and money.  Here are ways you can start to make your meetings better. 

Rate your meetings  In a previous article, which you can read here, I talked about the Level 10 Meeting Agenda. This is a tool we use to keep your meetings in focus and make sure they are effective. The agenda keeps you on track to address the things that truly matter in your business, rather than going off on tangents. When it comes to issues, participants identify, discuss and ultimately solve them.  Rating your meeting takes this structure further. When you measure something, you can manage it. If every meeting you run in your company is awarded a rating, evaluating its effectiveness, you can look for ways to improve.  You get what you expect. Expect a 10. 

How to rate your meetings  The correct way to rate a meeting is not related to how long it is, how exhausted you are or even whether or not you got anything done. It’s about rating each other on how well you worked through your agenda as a team.  At regular points in the meeting, the facilitator will ask: ‘Does everyone agree we did a good job?’  Then at the end of the meeting, recap on the events of the meeting and share your feedback on how well it went. Then, it’s time to give it a mark out of ten based on the Objectives and Agenda. How well did we do as a team? 1 for a waste of time, 10 for a covered agenda.  As you deliberate on what mark to award your meeting, you might ask yourself some of the following questions:  • Did we start and end on time? • Was everyone prepared for the meeting? • Did we follow the agenda? • Did we review the ‘to-do’ list and clarify cascading messages? • Did we identify, discuss and solve Issues? • Was it ‘EOS pure’? – no tangents, no politics, no timewasting • Did we work as a team? • Did everyone participate? • Were we ‘Open and Honest?’ • Did we challenge each other to be our best?  If you and the team did all of these things, then give it a 10. Go` and celebrate!  If you did not rate it a 10, what would you need to do to make it a 10 next time? If the other participants are not awarding 10s, ask for open and honest feedback.  You’ll soon see that the amount of time you spend in unproductive meetings will drop, meaning running your business is a lot easier.  

Over to you  If any of this resonates with you, let’s get together.  To find out how to improve your meetings, or more about EOS, please contact me to schedule a free 90-Minute Meeting with your leadership team and an EOS Implementer. If this seems premature – we get it. We’re entrepreneurs, too.  Please know, this is NOT a high-pressure sales pitch. It’s just the simplest, best way for you and your team to connect with an EOS Implementer for a detailed overview of the system, the tools and the process.  There’s no charge for this meeting, and no obligation. It’s a valuable learning event that will answer all your questions and fully equip you and your team to decide how best to move forward with EOS (or not).