Morning Management Meeting

Often referred as “M.M.M”

Usually morning meeting are early as soon as all the managers arrived at work, at a fixed time, in most of time at 9 am. However I have seen some hotels doing it at 8 am, others at 10 am.

It is composed of all keys managers, head of sections and departments.

This daily meeting has several goals:

-         Report the sales & operations of the previous day(s)

-         Share information officially to all the managers

-         Give guidelines and instructions on the day operation

-         Solve eventual problems

-         Share forecast, occupancy, arrivals, VIP, groups

I join once a hotel and a new team; the management team at the morning meeting was very ineffective and my immediate thoughts were to implement some regulations but the understanding of the managers first about those ideas; they agreed and finally the team started to work with more effectiveness, as well everyone was happy about it.

Before:

? Everybody was coming late. Finally after 5 to minutes having most of them, we started the meeting but a few minutes later another manager entered and a few minutes later again another one. Sometimes they had to repeat what they have said because the one who arrived late missed it. So waste of time.

? Everyone was speaking without limit of time, sometimes debates started for over 30 minutes

? No chairman of the meeting, everyone speaking when they want and cutting each other. No regulator to drive the meeting and timing.

? No record or minutes taken.

? The same topics and discussion came again and again, no improvement. Repeated issues.

? No logical order

? Telephone ringing

? Several meetings in the same meeting (people speak each other on their phone)

? Time to time verbal fight creating a very “bad day” morning to start, some we could say had their day simply spoil due to argument happening at that time.

After:

? Everyone arrive on time

? There is a chairman

? There is a protocol of seats (each manager same seat each day)

? Logical order (from operations to administration)

? Minutes meeting are taken and send immediately one hour later

? Debates are not welcome in this team at this time but are needed in another time with selected & needed persons only (no need to involve everyone for a specific problem)

? Phone must be on vibration only

? No limit of time to each but everyone is encouraged to summary

? There is an SOP (standard operation procedure) called “Morning meeting” issued from the executive office about it and some basic information are mandatory to share for some managers

? People late will communicate early to the chairman (with valid reason) so we don’t wait and meeting starts ALWAYS on time.

The most important is that everyone understood that meetings before were long and anyway after everyone went out of the room without the solution of their problems, they need not collect useful and needed information.

Now managers return to their work place quickly and if for some reasons they missed one meeting they can read later from their mailbox the minutes meeting of the day.

Having a dynamic team attending meetings improve overall company performance, a passive team will spend hours to sit around tables without constructive results.

Interesting best practices:

a)     Reduce 2 chairs versus the number of attendees

The last 2 persons to arrive will have to stand while all others will be comfortable and sitting

b)     Use a screen

Good to see fresh online reviews and it’s more convenient to see financial performance versus budget, month to day and last night revenue.

Other advantage is that we can share photo of VIP if any and also show the business on the books from the PMS.

Either a wall projector or a wall mounted large TV connected to a computer.

It’s required a secretary or coordinator to collect information and reports before the meeting start, turn on devices and open files.

        c ) Focus on one department

Each day of the week to have a second part after made first the usual round of the table attendees; it’s a 10 minutes focus on one department only, a presentation to others or a reminder of regulations, presentation of SOP for example.

d ) Give fines

Late person will have to pay a symbolic coin per minute late with a maximum limit ( example 10 minutes), use a piggy bank style to collect on the spot. This is not a hotel revenue but could be used for management outing when got enough in it.

e) Changing meeting location

1 day per week to host the meeting in another area of the hotel, it could be by rotation (example at the restaurant, garden, pool side, even housekeeping areas….). The department host can introduce his department and even offer certain snacks or hot drinks.

f) Rotating chairman

By monthly rotation, one department head can be the regulator, it helps to develop certain managers skills and give them confidence.

g) Birthday celebration

If it’s someone birthday from the M.M.M team, take this opportunity to cut a cake together or at least to make a surprise and group greetings.

h) Cost 1 minute

Calculate by your finance controller how much cost 1 minutes of M.M.M, having all the high salaries persons together in one room is certainly expensive. Divide the monthly salary by total day, total hours and you can calculate how much is one minute for each person. 1 minute of the general manager+ 1 minute of the HR manager…. Etc

At the end, how much cost 1 minutes by adding all and imagine now that having 30 minutes of these big people time together is a very expensive time, create awareness of cost of time and time management.

i) White board

Before the meeting, the financial controller should come first and update the month-to-date revenue per department and mention again the month budget situation (+/-). Use green marker when above and red for below.

As well, on the same board we can mention the daily goals of revenue.

Other information on the board could be :

• BAR of the day
• Occupancy on hand for the day
• Occupancy forecast for the day and coming 7 days

At the beginning of each month, erase all and write down the new month budget per section and the new daily revenue to achieve