Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.
Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.
It’s the start of a new year. For many of us, it’s time to lay out our goals for the year ahead. In recent weeks, I’ve written about the keys to a successful annual planning meeting.
But that’s just step one. To create a culture of discipline and accountability, we must schedule and commit to three leadership team planning meetings to review our progress and outline the key initiatives for each upcoming quarter.
At PCI, our leadership team meets for a full day at the start of each quarter to assess our progress against our annual plan and select our “Big Rocks” or objectives for the next 90 days.
The quarterly meeting provides a rich opportunity to build team chemistry. We begin the session by having each team member take a few minutes to check in on how they are doing professionally and personally.
It’s also a great time to review and commit to our organization’s purpose, vision, and values.
Then, it’s time to get down to business. One best practice outlined by Mark Moses and his co-authors in Making Big Happen is to have each leader prepare answers in advance of the meeting for a few important questions:
• What went right this quarter?
• What went wrong?
• What have we learned?
• How did we do against our quarterly goals and targets?
• What are our most significant opportunities and challenges in the next quarter?
• What is the number one goal we could achieve that would impact our growth?
Mark tells us our goal is to “push past superficial answers and keep asking questions until we get to the root causes of any shortfalls.” We don’t stop the conversation at what went wrong. We must then identify the leading activities that will drive future outcomes.
The key agenda item for the meeting is to discuss and decide upon the next set of quarterly goals and initiatives to keep us on track to achieve our one-year goals.
The key learning? The culture of accountability must start at the top. “By ruthlessly holding ourselves and our leadership team accountable to the goals we set thirteen weeks ago, there is no room for excuses,” the authors write.
Schedule and commit to three upcoming quarterly meetings now.
More next week!
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Reflection: Do we hold a quarterly planning meeting to review progress and plan for the next quarter? If yes, how can we make this meeting even more impactful?
Action: Schedule and commit to three upcoming quarterly meetings now.
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