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Rhythm Strategy Management Software - How to Effectively Prepare for Weekly Meetings

By Ryan Walcott

dateFri, Mar 28, 2014 @ 09:00 AM

 

Weekly Meeting Prep is part of your "Do" Rhythm. We call this time a "Weekly Meeting with Yourself."

 

The Weekly Meeting with Yourself is critical to ensure you are making the right adjustments as you execute with purpose each week to achieve your goals for a successful quarter.

 

Benjamin Franklin once said "By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail."

 

The meeting with yourself is the single most important thing you can do to ensure you have purposeful accomplishment in a week.

 

These meetings with yourself typically take about 15-30 minutes and are for the purpose of "Sharpening Your Saw" as Stephen Covey taught.

 

They should happen the day before your weekly meeting with your group. You should take time to review the week that just ended and prepare for a great week ahead.

 

In this time you will:

 

1. Review and status how you are executing against your KPIs & Priorities

2. Review your Actions List

3. Plan your week ahead

 

Step 1 - Review and status how you are executing on your KPIs & Priorities

 

You created a great execution plan during your quarterly planning session that included your goals/targets for the quarter and your top priorities to achieve them.  Now you need to get that work done and achieve your goals.

 

You can use Rhythm to review those items and status your dashboards each week.  

 

Start with your KPIs. Review each KPI dashboard and reflect on the numbers.  Ask yourself, “Are we on-track to achieve our Green goal for the quarter/month/week?”  If so, update the status reflecting a forecast of a Green finish.  If not, status either Red or Yellow based on your predetermined success criteria.  Then be sure to think about and record (in a comment if you’re using Rhythm) why the KPI is off-track and what your action plan to achieve Green is.  This comment tells the story behind your status and helps you own the KPI.  It also lets the team know what is going on so that they can also be better prepared to discuss possible adjustments needed for success at your weekly meeting.  Other team members can also collaborate with you based on your comments to work on the issue even outside the weekly meeting time.  This helps accelerate your problem solving, leading to more effective growth.

 

Gazelles Systems KPIs & Dashboards

 

Follow that same method for all priorities you own.  This will include company priorities you own, priorities you are leading your group to achieve and those you are working on individually.

 

Gazelles Systems Priorities Dashboard in Rhythm

 

Step 2 - Review and update your Actions List

 

Review any Actions List items associated with your priorities and be sure to mark them completed.  If you are running late on these items, understand why and document what you will do to get back on-track.  Downloading your Actions List items to your calendar can help you better manage completing them on time.

 

Gazelles Systems Actions List in Rhythm

 

Step 3 - Plan your week ahead

 

I always coach my clients by saying, “If you don’t plan your week, your week will plan you.”  What I mean is that if you are not intentional about determining your top priorities and blocking out time to complete them each week, then you will run your week by the tyranny of the urgent.  You will be very busy but not accomplish the top priorities you identified in your quarterly planning session.

 

Rhythm provides you with an effective screen to keep your Week-In-Sync with your plan and the rest of the team.  Each week, you should think on and record the following:

 

• What are my victories from last week?

• What are my priorities for the week ahead?

• What am I stuck on?

• What is my “Successful if” for the week?  My primary focus?

 

 

You can record these in the Week-In-Sync screen of Rhythm each week of the quarter.  These notes are not only beneficial for your personal planning, they will also be shared with your team in the weekly meeting so that everyone is on the same page and can help you if they have experiences or resources to share that could aid in your success.

 

Gazelles Systems WIS (Week In Sync) notes in Rhythm

 

Following these steps will help you stay aligned to achieve your plan each quarter as you execute to grow your business.

 

Helping you grow,

 

  

Ryan

 

Rhythm Systems Weekly Meeting With Myself Tool

 

Ryan Walcott

 

Photo Credit: iStock by Getty Images