High-Performing Contractor - Aug 08

Submitted by Dennis Sowards on 20 August 2008 - 10:00am.

Leadership

How to lead weekly staff meetings

Meetings Bloody Meetings is the name of a very funny training video on how to better manage meetings. The title probably describes how many feel about meetings. They are usually boring, poorly organized and at best only half as useful as the time it takes. Every company holds them but most see them as a necessary evil. Leaders in high-performing contracting companies conduct meetings just like everyone else, but they do it better and make the meetings more useful.

Many managers feel as though they “have to” hold a weekly meeting, yet struggle with the content and flow. What a positive way to get the week started! Here are some ideas for how to improve the weekly staff meeting:

Have a printed agenda for the meeting. It should discuss all the important items you want to cover.
The meeting should start positive, be upbeat and crisp in covering the issues.
Consider starting with “warm-up” exercises for the team. This would be something simple (5 minutes max) but that would get the participants thinking and smiling. Examples are:
Have everyone list three things that they like about their job
Have someone share one experience where they recently saw an employee live the company values
Brainstorm the successes the company had the previous week/month; Talking about success makes people feel successful.
Work in twos or threes to solve a riddle or math question.
Have someone say (without looking) the company vision, mission and/or values. If they get it word perfect give them a prize.
Brainstorm ways to improve customer service or safety
Do stretch & flex exercises
Have someone tell a funny story. Pre-assign it so they can prepare. Not a joke, a story. This makes it more real, and more personal.
List everyone’s frustrations. Limit it to 30 seconds of bloodletting per person. Have the say something like “I get frustrated with _____ because it keeps me from ___________.” Keep it quick, only list the issues, don’t allow war stories and don't react immediately. Let solutions be offered later in the meeting or another meeting. Let everyone get it off his or her chest. Maybe give a candy bar (chocolate helps easy frustration) to the biggest frustration.
Obviously this needs to vary each meeting and should always be keep brief.

Cover any administrative details in two or three minutes. No more. The rest can be emailed.
Serve great food. Make the team feel first class by providing first class eats. It’s worth every ounce of caffeine, and every gram of carb if attendees want to come to the meeting.
Have a whine or speaking ill box. Set the rule that if anyone starts whining (outside of the frustration exercise) or speaks bad about someone not in the meeting, they must put some money ($1 or $5) in the box. Use the money to buy the food or to contribute to a favorite charity.
Require that cell phones not be answered during the meeting unless in involves “blood.” Nothing kills the momentum of a meeting more than having someone take a call and talk in the room or step outside and miss the discussion. Charge $5 for every time the phone rings (not on buzz or silent.) Put the money in the whine box – see above.
Review key issues, problems and/or plans that everyone needs to know. Cover the highlights but don’t turn the meeting into a problem solving session. Assign one or more people to address the issue and report back. If the issue only relates to one of the people in the meeting, cover that off line; don’t waste everyone’s time.
Cover the company’s critical success measures. This may be once a month for all measures or do some each week. In reviewing the measures look at where we are today, where we want to be and what is the trend. If not satisfactory, assign the appropriate individual to determine what actions need to be taken to correct the problem.
Identify Solutions to frustrations. Revisit the frustrations listed in the warm-up referenced above. Take five to ten minutes to discuss the frustrations and barriers. This may only allow time to cover two or three frustrations so it may take several weeks of meetings. Explore the frustration and its causes, and then ask for solutions. Get it out in the open so that answers can create better understanding.
Identify expectations for the week. Have each person tell what he or she seeks to accomplish this week with respect to their responsibilities and what they need from others in the room. This needs to be crisp – each person should say the key actions they need to do and what help they need. If that help is possible the helping party should commit in a few words (One word “Yes” is great.). If there are problems in helping the two parties should agree to resolve off line.
Summarize any commitments made in the meeting. List commitments or actions as they happen during the meeting. Use a white board or flip chart. At the end of the meeting quickly review the list. Make sure every action has an assigned person and the person accepts the responsibility.
End upbeat! Give two minutes of something motivational and inspirational -- a recording, a reading, a story shared, a video clip. Something that will energize each attendee to follow through with their commitments.

Use these ideas, involve everyone, and create a positive anticipation for a week of success. The object of any staff meeting is to have a favorable outcome by sharing “need to know” information and getting commitments to take action to improve the company. These are some ideas for improving meetings, use them, they work. Meetings can be more fun and effective.

Customer Focused – Top Priorities

“The top 2 business priorities! In my opinion, business is simple. The two most important priorities are to FIND customers and then KEEP customers. Finding customers involves everything to keep profitable revenue coming in the door. Finding customers includes: sales, marketing, estimating, presenting proposals, customer appreciation, schmoozing, networking, and what you do to build loyal customer relationships. This area is often overlooked in construction businesses. Most construction company owners focus on bidding work and then getting it done. As a top priority, finding customers can not be delegated easily. Customers want to know who they are doing business with. Keeping customers is all about doing a good job and meeting your customer's expectations and contractual requirements. This top priority is an outcome of a well organized and systemized operation led by a professional management team and well trained employees. This area of your company can be managed by a professional management team who implements your business mission, philosophy, organizational systems and procedures. But, without great systems in place, delegating operational tasks is impossible.”

Source: Our Goal Is To Make Your Meeting A Success! The Business Owner Toolbox #2 Make Your #1 Priority Your #1 Priority! By George Hedley

Process Management

Sometimes when teams or individuals are making decisions they fall in traps that led them to faulty decisions. Here are two traps and what one can do to avoid them:

1. The Anchoring Trap. This is giving a disproportionate weight to the first information received and placing less importance on subsequent information. This can cause the decision maker to overlook critical information. How to avoid:
Try viewing the problem from different starting points.
Seek information from a variety of sources.
Avoid anchoring others when asking for advice.
In negotiating - think about your position in advance.

2. The Sunk-Cost Trap. This trap happens when we make decisions based on past choices, even when the past choices no longer seem valid. Sunk cost is water under the bridge and should not affect current decisions except for lessons learned. How to avoid:
Seek opinions from people who were not involved in or committed to the past decisions.
Examining why admitting to an earlier mistake distresses you. “When you find yourself in a hole, the best thing you can do is stop digging” Warren Buffet.
Be aware of when subordinates may be influenced by sunk-cost. Reassign responsibility when necessary.
Don’t cultivate a fear of failure culture. This leads people to perpetuate their mistakes.

Source: “The Hidden Traps in Decision Making” by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney and Howard Raiffa, Harvard Business Review, September- October 1998.

Learning Opportunities

You may be interested in attending one of these training seminars by Dennis Sowards:

Sept. 18, 2008 – Job Planning that Works - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy
Oct 2, 2008 – Lean Works in Construction, Seattle, WA – Sponsor: SMACNA - Western Washington Chapter – contact Joanne Williams at 206 285-4144. Must be a SMACNA member to attend.
Oct. 16, 2008- Designing and Achieving World-Class Performance in Construction – Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy
Nov 10, 2008 - Gaining Customer Loyalty by Design, Oakland, CA – Sponsor: Bay Area SMACNA Chapter – contact Audrey Kerns at (510) 635-8212. Must be a SMACNA member to attend.

If your company is interested in training in the follow areas, contact Dennis Sowards:
Lean in Construction
5S’s
Lean applied to Service Operations
Customer Loyalty
Strategic Planning – Leadership by Design
Process Mapping
Root Cause Analysis
How to make Meetings work – for Everyone!
World Class Performance – how to achieve it