Have Your Level 10 Meetings Stalled Out?

Do your employees cringe every time you read a new book or sit through a new seminar? I know mine did. They knew that new book on my desk meant I was going to have some sort of genius attack, change a process, bring in new products and usually create a whole bunch of initial excitement. Sounds great, right? Except, time and time again, the momentum fizzled out, the interest waned and eventually we settled back into our old process until the next brilliant idea came along. Oh, and we would usually blame the new system for the failure, it certainly wasn't us and our ideas were good so we must have just picked the wrong system for our business.

Guess what? It's not the system!!!

Most organizational development programs are based on solid business principles that lead to growth and positive outcomes when followed. So, if the system was solid and my people were willing and able to do the work, what caused our light speed momentum to come to a screeching halt?

Let's look closely at what happens when we put new accountability measures in place. At first, everyone that is eager for change is super excited. These are the people in your company that have a long list of important but not urgent "to-do's" to get done. Your new structure allows them to go to work on these tasks and it provides a great system for holding everyone accountable to the results. We show up to subsequent meetings and things are done, projects are completed and we go from 0 to 60 in the blink of any eye. We can't believe how transformative this is! We feel great about our progress, our company and ourselves. But then something happens, all of sudden the great ideas stop coming as the "to-do" list dwindles. People who have watched the process now know that any idea will be met with them being assigned a role in fixing it and they are reluctant to volunteer. Much of the time, they are reluctant because they simply don't know how to fix it. They have never been given the tools to fix the real problems. This leads to meetings that become more about updates and minor issue fixes as the bigger "rocks" get left off to the side.

How do we avoid this inertia and give our leadership confidence in identifying issues, designing solutions and solving problems? We give them the TOOLS!! Without the right tools the greatest systems in the world will fail.

My grandfather used to say "Any job is easy if you have the right tools"

Take a look at those big rocks on in your vision and ask - Does my team have the tools to fix these issues? Are there examples they can model? Are the tools they have access to up to date or are they using processes that are decades old? Are there peer groups they should be joining? Have we trained them to be capable of handling this? Do they need help? Do they need coaching?

If you have jumped from system to system and the momentum always seems to sputter out, you may be fixing the wrong problem. Take a look at your team and their skill set and tools they have available. Your team will thank you and they will no longer cringe every time a new book appears on your desk.

If you are interested in learning more about the tools that will complement your existing strategic plan, I am happy to discuss or provide free tools to help you improve your process. There are several free resources, some are listed below .... just email me at [email protected] or message me here on LinkedIn and let me know what resources you want and I will send them right over.

1. Request the free, Control 365 Business Assessment that will allow you to self-assess the organization and highlight the areas to focus your efforts as you build your plan for the greatest impact on your business value.
2. Request the new free Control 365 Training Video that outlines the process for taking back control of the business, driving personal stress levels down and valuations up.
3. Schedule a quick call with me, just pick a time that is convenient at https://calendly.com/je86 and I would be glad to talk and learn more about your business.