You Want a Meeting for What‽

Clock over door to Honby library, Liverpool central library Picton reading rooms ℅ alamy.com

How’s zooming going? It’s fascinating how pre-COVID, so many shunned virtual meetings and now we’re over-meeting virtually because it’s ‘easy’ which has led to even more meetings! So, let me share a client’s habit for any and all of their meetings. It’s made a big difference ~ PPO (not PPP or PPE).

PPO is Purpose, Process and Outcome.  When you want a meeting, clearly state the Purpose, the Process to be used and the desired Outcome.  Here are examples from 2 recent client meetings:

Prioritize the top tactics for a key strategy:

• Purpose: Decide the top 2 tactics to be executed by 7/1/2021 for Strategy 1;

• Process: Take our current list of the top 6 tactics and prioritize those to the top 2 that have to be done immediately and why;

• Outcome: The plan for the 2 top tactics including each tactic’s champion, definition of ‘done’, due/done date, metrics, 90-day action plan of who is doing what when to reach the 7/1/2021 deadline and the tracking/monitoring schedule.

 Finalize who will be accepted to a leadership program:

• Purpose: Select the 5 people for the 2021-2022 leadership program;

• Process: Applying the program’s criteria along with each applicants’ career plans, prioritize the list of applicants to the 5 we will accept;

• Outcome: Final 5 identified with personalization verbiage of acceptance letter for each one, to be copied to their manager, and personalized letter of rejection to the rest to be sent by 2/25/2021.

This seems like a no-brainer, something we read in all the ‘effective meeting’ manuals, right‽ So, given our level of zoom fatigue, why not try it? Creating a PPO forces us to see if we really need a meeting, who really has to be there, and what we have to get done. It shouldn’t (ideally) take a lot of time to create the PPO.  And, it provides focus, choice and clarity – something we can all use these days! Try it this week!

It’s 202‽

2021 - maybe it’s better to say December 42, 2020 instead of January 11, 2021 (kafkaesque?). We so want major demarcations in time to be major demarcations in hope, optimism, aspiration… change! Sure doesn’t feel like it this year, at least so far. But, I think it will - and to help make that happen, let’s start making our own time-based demarcations, based on our time vs. time imposed by some calendar, society, expectation of the way things ought to be.

So, my 2021 time-based demarcation a punctuation mark - the 54-year old interrobang, a forgotten and perfect punctuation mark for 202‽. Feel free to join me! Use this remarkable, timely, integrated (!?) punctuation mark - set your own timeframes, demarcations and mark them with a ‽

Why Dishwashers are a Great Management Lesson

What the heck does a dishwasher have to do with management? Everything – stick with me.  Think about how many managers (including us!) struggle with micromanaging, criticizing (vs. critiquing), taking vs. giving credit and giving vs. taking blame.  It takes maturity, desire and compassion to unlearn these habits.

That’s why dishwashers are the perfect example.  How many of you have asked your kids to load and unload the dishwasher? Raise your hands.  How many of your kids took a thoughtful, systematic, geometric approach to loading the dishwasher? I don’t see many hands. Bet this drove you nuts! Your kid gets an A in geometry and can’t load the dishwasher???? You have a few options:

1. Watch them as they load it and tell them where to put the bowl, the pan, the spatula – basically loading it yourself with their hands;

2. Load it yourself so it’s done right, all the dishes are in; your dishwasher-compulsion is satisfied;

3. Let them load it their way and when they go to bed, rearrange everything the way you like it;

4. Let them load it their way (best to leave the room), put in the soap, run it, and unload it.

But what are you trying to accomplish by using the dishwasher in the first place? Have dishes washed, dried and put away without anything breaking. So, what management lessons can we learn from the above 4 options? 

1. You’re micromanaging!!!! The loader has no say, no choice.  They learn how YOU like it done, but your way isn’t the only way. They don’t learn from doing it themselves, which is how most of us learn; they don’t find other (better?) ways to load; they don’t feel free to try and experiment, and I bet they don’t want to load the dishwasher again for fear of criticism (and, ok, it’s not a ton of fun to do);

2. You’re not giving loaders the chance to load and learn! Very similar to #1 above, if you do it for them, they never learn, they don’t grow, they don’t become independent, and maybe they don’t discover new ways to redesign the dishwasher for more efficiency (and room!), or take risks and try in other ways;

3. You’ve taken away their sense of accomplishment and self-sufficiency.  The minute they open the dishwasher to unload it, they see you changed it.  They interpret this as not doing a good job, as failure (vs. they didn’t do it your way).  They won’t be too eager to do it (or other things) again;

4. They did it! Mission Accomplished!! You wanted the dishes loaded, unloaded & put away, hopefully with nothing broken.  And let’s assume that you told them you wanted all that done by 10pm and its 9:59pm. What more can you ask? You asked them to load, run & unload by a specific time and it’s done!!! And you didn’t have to do it!  Sure, maybe it wasn’t as full as it could be, but that’s not your problem – the more they have to load/unload, the better they’ll get at putting more in because that means less loading/unloading!

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot: clinamen  at the SF MOMA

Do any of these situations sound familiar? You tell your employees WHAT you want done by WHEN, but then harp on them about HOW?  Sure, there’s a lot to learn from your HOW, but is that more important than learning for themselves? How would you want to be managed? Like this?

Are you developing your people’s skills, independence, creativity, knowledge, expertise? Or are you undermining them? Next time you give an assignment, stop and think about the dishwasher.  What do you really want done, and by when … and what is best for your employees and the organization? Maybe clean dishes, put away with breaking.