MODERN BUSINESS
Who, When) action lists, while
others such as suggestions to
freshen-up meetings encouraged
the all-important creativity.
Another small team explored
software options, created a
team collaboration space with
all the meeting tools as wikis,
and provided coaching on using
GoToMeeting, Evernote and other
useful technologies.
3
Silo thinking
The third root cause wasn’t
as obvious, but it emerged as
two separate issues. The first
was in the lack of ideas coming
from meetings. The culture didn’t
encourage people to challenge
or be open to challenge; so that
needed addressing, along with
the habit of only inviting people
with similar perspectives. For
example, the technical meetings
were attended by engineers (not
surprisingly) but they all think like
engineers!
Leaders were made accountable
to bring people into meetings
who connect (not reinforce)
the silos, and a suite of simple
feedback tools encouraged staff
to accept the responsibility to
challenge. The second issue was
decision making that followed
the frequency of meetings. It was
too slow for a business going
through transformation so the
mantra ‘engage early, engage often
and act’ was adopted, with the
focus on replacing meetings with
‘fast collaboration’ conversations
(face-to-face and online). This
transformed the way the business
prepares tenders and general
business development because
people no longer waited for a
meeting to discuss ideas and get
approval.
Sanity
The world is going too fast and
the opportunities too abundant
to rely on 20th century meeting
methods and practices. This article
shows a nice combination of
Graham Winter is the best-selling author
of Think One Team, the revolutionary
90 day plan that engages employees,
connects silos and transforms
organisations (Wiley, $25.95). www.
thinkoneteam.com
common sense, disciplines-withoutbureaucracy and leveraging the link
between people and technology.
Perhaps it’s time for a 90 day think
one team project to purge a few
million dollars of wasted money in
your organisation? Why don’t you
ask to be accountable to start that
on Monday?
February 2016
ModernBusiness
49