Chapter 3 EXECUTING EFFECTIVE MEETINGS

The three P’s  Planning, Procedures and Policies.

There’s that planning again.

What if you hire 50 people weekly and have to train them?  This is a good way of setting a scenario to work through you own personal company.

The Large-Company Model p.59 says Large company has the 3 Ps “…but most don’t go far enough in perfecting and implementing them.”

Workshops – I like the idea of workshop instead of meetings.  If you add the topic for the Workshop – Answering the Phone, it also focuses and prepares the participants.

Writing down  Action Items and individuals responsible for the action ideas will help with implementation and moving the improvements along.

Continuing Workshops are basically brainstorming workshops that have been around since the 90’s with a different name.  My first brainstorming meeting I went to we did a brainstorming exercise to prove 12 heads are better than one.  We were asked to list how many ways we could use a paperclip.  It was short a lot of fun and made it point.

To show implementation of the process he returns to the carpet cleaning example to demonstrate the up-sale.  As a salesperson it’s great, as a consumer I feel conned.

How they implemented it was excellent, they added in the six additional services they offer on the order form.

If you go the movies, the concession stand workers are trained to up sale to the large popcorn, add the large drink, add the box of m&ms.

I don’t know if I agree with the statement that “everyone must feel the pain.”  He also talks about how it presented all the solutions on a silver platter; all they had to do is implement his ideas.  Everyone will tell you that you have to get the implementers buy-in.  I think consultants are problem solvers and we often see the solution before they do.  A truly good consultant and facilitator will provide the guidance and tools for the employees to see the solution.  This is not an easy thing to do especially if patience is not one of your virtues.

Testing new ideas out.  I agree they have to be tested out.  However, I don’t think the CEOs should do this themselves.  CEOs that do it all themselves tend to be control freaks that stifle employees.

Setting a deadline for testing is a good idea.  Many of the projects are written in word or excel and we will do many drafts before we have the final draft.

I recommend that procedure changes be documented in SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) with a date and continue to update the procedure until you have it the way you like it and then release it.

p.54 7. Have Show-and-Tell and Role Playing.

This reinforces that seeing it and doing it are good methods to sell your idea and help employees retain the information and procedure.

Have Another Workshop on How to Improve.  This is what I call FEEDBACK in my plan, organize, control and feedback.

Measure and Reward the Outcome.  You can measure the success for the idea through Key Performance Indicators.

Reward the Outcome.  I use gainsharing and incentive plans to reward the outcome but you can do small rewards like pizza parties, t-shirts and special parking privileges.

Next blog: May 28, 2015