The Rockefeller Habits: Daily vs. Weekly Meetings

Written by Joe Panettieri 1
March 30, 2010

One of the reasons I left "corporate life" was to move faster and spend less time in meetings, where conversations go around and around and sometimes never reach a natural conclusion. Still, meetings are mandatory for success -- especially as managed services providers strive to get their staff members working toward company and departmental goals.

One of the reasons I left “corporate life” was to move faster and spend less time in meetings, where conversations go around and around and sometimes never reach a natural conclusion. Still, meetings are mandatory for success — especially as managed services providers strive to get their staff members working toward company and departmental goals. Some simple tips — from books like Mastering the Rockefeller Habits — can help your team to measure its progress on a daily and weekly basis. Here’s how.

For weekly meetings, author Verne Harnish recommends the following one-hour pace:

5 Minutes, Good News — everyone share one success story, either involving the business or personal life.
10 minutes, The Numbers — share true measures and metrics for business performance.
10 minutes, Customer and Employee Feedback — be sure to gather such feedback on a weekly basis, then truly share it and act on it.
30 minutes, A Rock or Single Issue — instead of glancing over multiple issues, do a deep dive on the most pressing issue.
Closing Comments — everyone should share one closing thought or “reaction” to the meeting, so that you can check the pulse of your staff.

Also, Harnish recommends scheduling the meeting before breakfast, lunch or happy hour so that the conversation can potentially spill over into an informal setting. I’m not a morning person, so don’t count on any good ideas from me during a pre-breakfast setting.

The Daily Deal

For daily meetings:

2 to 5 minutes — what’s up
2-5 minutes — daily measurements/indicators
2-5 minutes — where are you stuck, what’s the bottleneck
Stand up during the meeting (actually, I take walks with my phone to escape from my seated blogger position at the keyboard)

Generally speaking, our internal teams (sales, editorial) try to have daily meetings at a set time that’s blocked out — perpetually — on everyone’s calendar. Do we really hold those daily meetings every day? I concede, our track record is hit-and-miss. But we’re making progress. And we do stay in topic.

Side note: Frequent MSPmentor readers may have met author Verne Harnish at ConnectWise Partner Summit 2009, where he was a guest speaker and ConnectWise handed out Harnish’s book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. Just one more example why MSPs need to get out of the office and attend business-centric conferences packed with practical tips and guidance.

Sign up for MSPmentor’s weekly Enewsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. And follow us via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; and Twitter. Plus, check out more MSP voices at www.MSPtweet.com.