Remarkable Result

from Able Leader, March 2004

by Steve Kaye

In the January 2004 issue of Fast Company, Shoshana Zuboff (professor of Business Administration at Harvard) mentions that she lives on a lakeside Farm in Maine with her husband and two children. It's a working farm with a beautiful herd of naturally raised fallow deer.

You must recognize that this is not a cookie cutter residence in some subdivision of a suburb. It's a unique and special place. And it's not the type of home that you stumble into by accident. So how do you find something like this?

You begin with a vision and then set goals to take you there. As leaders, you must find this to be a trivial answer. But do you apply basic planning principles to your personal life? Do you have a vision for your future and a plan for getting there?

If not, set aside time to prepare a personal plan. Treat your future like an important business venture.

I'll add that some businesses lack a formal plan for their future. The leaders just show up each day and work on urgent tasks. They're too busy to spend time on something as remote as a plan.

In fact, a plan can eliminate many of the urgent tasks that result from drifting. Then, rather than spending time plugging leaks, the leaders spend their time making the business more profitable by following the plan.

The solution? Hold a planning meeting with your staff.

Resolving Business Challenges

from Able Leader, March 2004

by Steve Kaye

If your business is facing challenges, you are most likely holding meetings to figure out ways to resolve them. And if you are holding meetings like many groups do, you are most likely making the situation worse.

How?

An inefficient, ineffective meeting takes a long time to produce low quality results. That keeps you from working on other, higher value tasks. And implementing poor solutions may cause more damage than leaving things alone.
Here's an example that compares two approaches.

In the past, a senior management team would gather for a full day annual planning meeting. They spent the day talking about issues and talking about solutions and talking about news and talking about stuff. A few people did most of the talking while the rest listened. At the end, they had a large collection of ideas, but no specific plans or solutions. As a result, none of the ideas voiced in the meeting were used.

Many executives would recognize this as similar to their meetings.

This year, the management team hired me to facilitate their annual meeting. Within a little more than five hours, this team accomplished the following tasks: they prepared a draft of a mission statement for their company, developed a list of goals for the coming year, and identified ways that they could support each other's work. I am now preparing a report on the meeting, which the president will use to track progress implementing these results.

So, what's the point?

If you are holding meetings to plan your future or improve profitability, you will find that a facilitator helps you accomplish more in less time.

Key Point: Plans lead to solutions.

Much success,

Steve Kaye
714-528-1300