by Patrick J. McKenna

c. Ensure ideas are actionable

It is essential for the facilitator to be ever vigilant in ensuring that the ideas expressed are specific, doable, and can be implemented. Sounds easy, but it's not. As professionals we are prone to expressing concepts or goals, and often find it difficult to transform those concepts into actions.

For example, one common concept that we often hear is, I think that in our group we should always make a point of visiting our clients at their place of business to learn more about them. And we think so too! As a concept it is a good one. The only small hurdle is how?

As the facilitator, you must always be asking yourself as these ideas surface: Is this proposed idea specific, tangible and quantitative enough (or is it merely a goal, concept, or objective)? Could some member of our group delegate this idea to a junior for implementation such that the junior would know exactly what initial action should be taken?

The challenge is in dealing with situations where ideas do not measure up to these criteria. The facilitator might want to gently encourage more specifics, without discussion. For example, you might say to the individual, George, that idea would no doubt be very helpful to you and the group. Could you expand upon it to help us determine how we could ensure that everyone in our group was doing this consistently and how we would know that it was happening.

Take a moment to explore with George (asking other group members to contribute) how we could do this, what is the action step. You are likely to elicit something like, Well, we could develop a wall-chart that would display a list of our top twenty clients down the vertical column and the members of our group along the horizontal. We could then initiate a system whereby each of us took responsibility to visit one client over the next quarter and note on the chart the date that client was visited and submit a report to the group on our findings.

As you can see, now you have something specific. The group will be able to assess for itself, at any point, how far along with this action plan they have progressed. Have the top twenty clients been identified? Has the wall-chart been developed? Has a visitation plan been drafted? Have client visits been made and reports submitted? The facilitator's job is to ensure that he or she has helped the group generate a good list of very specific, tangible, quantitative and implementable ideas for moving toward their objectives.

d. Get voluntary commitments

This is an action process. To simply engage in discussion may be informative and even entertaining, but accomplishes nothing ?except perhaps to frustrate those in your group who yearn to see the group accomplish something meaningful. Practice group meetings of this action planning nature should concluded with each member taking responsibility for a specific action task. In many meetings we have observed some practice leader arbitrarily delegating various items to members of the group as assignments for the next meeting. That is not the most effective way to get meaningful action. (It might be necessary in an emergency, or for a very junior person who simply needs to accept a few unattractive tasks at first, but will not be effective as a default operating mode with the group.)

It is a myth that people resist change. People resist what other people make them do, not what they themselves choose to do. People fight that which fails to take their needs or interests into account and gives them no room to influence decisions. People do not identify their own projects as change. They are simply acting on their aspirations to get something done that they can shape and mold. That's why firms that innovate successfully year after year seek their own professional's ideas, let them initiate new projects, and encourage multiple experiments.

As the meeting facilitator, you should reserve the final fifteen minutes to determining which of the ideas, from those generated, are sufficiently appealing to members of the group that they might be moved to volunteer to invest a modest amount of their discretionary non-billable time.

The practice leader might say to the group; We are going to take a moment to review all of the ideas we generated. I then want to hear from each of you in turn. Is there one idea amongst our list, that you feel sufficiently motivated by, that you would be prepared to invest a few hours of your time over the next month to get started onand please understand, this is to be totally voluntary no obligations, no recrimination. If you do not see an idea there that you would be prepared to work on, then you may simply 'pass' when I get to youif you do see an idea that you find motivating then I want to hear from you as which one it is.

We could consume a great deal of time in discussing and debating the relative merits of each idea. The harsh reality in many practice groups is that execution can turn into talking about execution. Instead, we suggest having your professionals look at all of the ideas generated and then individually, one by one, choose an idea that they are inspired by and would help to implement. (The wise facilitator risks by giving individuals the option to pass by not selecting any idea.) The role of the practice leader at this point is to:

• ensure that the idea is not completely contrary to the goals of the practice group;
• confer with each individual on what modest amount of non-billable time they have to work on implementing this idea over the next month;
• determine precisely what the first actions might be to moving this idea forward; and
• have them describe precisely what they will bring back to the next meeting as evidence that something has been accomplished.

The essence of success here is not reliant on picking the best, strategically important ideas to advance. That can wait until your group has had some experience and successes with productive meetings. Rather, the essence of success here is in stimulating members of the group to take some modest amount of constructive action.

e. Keep commitments small

Each specific task must be small and doable. It is a common observance that when professionals get caught-up in the process of generating good ideas or are stimulated by an idea that they like (often the very one that they themselves offered), they immediately want to volunteer to change the world.

Thus, in many meetings we observe professionals volunteering to either take on a number of projects or some task that is clearly so large that there is not a realistic hope that they will implement what they have promised by the next meeting. Following the meeting, that same professional returns to their office with the very best of intentions only to encounter the numerous client fires that burn. The next time they blink they find themselves at the next month's meeting with nothing substantial to report. The group then enters a demoralizing cycle where some members promise big, deliver nothing, get forgiven while others think to themselves why am I doing all the work or why do we bother?

It is important to temper professionals' enthusiasm by reminding them that their billable work will always take priority and determining with them what they think they can really accomplish in the next little while.

We have learned that the best performing groups operate on a simple philosophy. If each of us were to take one small project or the first step to progressing a larger undertaking. If we each were to commit a modest investment (two hours) of our non-billable time to implementing that task over the next month, then cumulatively and incrementally, we would make significant progress over time.

Your role as practice leader is to ensure that the task is very small (what is the first step that should be tackled to complete this project?). It is far better to move forward with many small steps, than to not move forward at all. Plans and tactics, however well intentioned, should be clearly secondary to concrete action.

f. Establish your Contracts For Action

Your further role as practice leader is to ensure that the task is carefully defined (What can we all expect to get from you by the next meeting?), and completely capable of being accomplished. It is important to return to the next meeting with people reporting small successes, not excuses.

You need to help each professional define specifically what the group should expect to see from them by the next meeting with regard to the execution of their particular assignment. Will your group get a report on some research that has been undertaken; evidence that the initial steps to completion are underway; a summary of the completed project with the outcomes achieved; or a tangible product that can be distributed amongst the members? The task and tangible outcome expected needs to be outlined in specifics. This is where ideas are converted into action.

It strikes us that the topic of non-billable time invested is similar to the issue of partner compensation. In partner compensation, it is often a matter not of what I am being compensated, as much as what my compensation is relative to other partners. So too with non-billable time. Members of a practice group get very uncomfortable if they think that others are not pulling their load, and they feel that they are doing all of the work.

In high performance groups the pressure for implementation is peer pressure. In the words of some practice leaders it is expressed as, Are each of us unconditionally prepared to give our practice group a solid commitment that we will absolutely complete any and every assignment that we voluntarily agreed to take responsibility for? The underlying philosophy becomes one of not letting the team down.

g. Follow-up between meetings

Since expectations are naturally high following a good practice group meeting, any lack of progressive action by the next meeting is extremely detrimental to group morale. This is the most frustrating problem for busy practice leaders. This is also the one area where a practice leader can have the greatest added-value impact and truly display their coaching abilities.

As a practice leader you have two options following your group meeting. You can either retreat to your own client work and wait for the next month's meeting to see what progress has been made; or you can proactively schedule a bit of time to wander about and offer to help various members of your group with their specific projects.

To achieve continuous action requires frequent interaction. What you might expect to hear from an effective practice leader is: Hey George. I remember that you took on the project of helping us initiate our client visitation efforts. How can I help? Do you think we might schedule a half-hour together later this week and I could work with you to develop our list of the top clients and a visitation schedule for our next meeting?

It is ironic that we invest time within our groups to make good plans and then spend little effort in follow-up to ensure that actions are being taken consistent with those plans. If we were to consider where the highest value use of time would be, for anyone who had the responsibility of being practice leader, it would be in this area of following up to help others succeed, by pitching in and giving them a hand to complete their projects.

Because of the time pressures that leaders face and for some leaders the size of the group that they are working with, it may be wise to delegate strategically to an able assistant, secretary, or some other partner who can help out. A deputy can do a lot to keep you informed as to which projects are on track and which may need your personal attention.

h. Celebrate successes

The overall goal for everything outlined here is small, quick successes. The best groups always take time to acknowledge a specific accomplishment and improvement in reaching a personal or group goal.

It is important to recognize that the outcome of present actions plays a major role in determining future actions. At the personal level, if people work especially hard and devote long hours to a project that eventually goes unnoticed, they will soon minimize or abandon their efforts. At the practice group level, if expectations are exceeded but there is no means of expressing pride in those achievements, it becomes a hollow victory.

Just as there is a time value to money, there is a time value to enthusiasm. The earlier you stimulate that enthusiasm, the sooner you can leverage it into real momentum. People like winners. And they like to be part of winning teams. Early wins and clear evidence of early momentum translates into early enthusiasm.

CONCLUSION

We are convinced that while most professionals may pontificate on how they despise meetings, what they are really expressing is their frustration with having to sit through protracted and unproductive meetings.

When given the opportunity to participate in a highly productive session that results in something tangible being generated (and especially if they see some quick and small successes flowing from the implementation of action plans) in all likelihood, they will be eager to agree that perhaps we can devote another half-hour to this topic. And, even if that doesn't happen, we are convinced that the group will have accomplished far more than they normally accomplish in less time.

That does not mean that every action will be successful. But, as Wayne Gretzky reminds us, You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. Practice leaders need to create a climate that tolerates missed shots yet demands that everyone continues to take them.

Results-oriented leaders see themselves as catalysts. They expect to achieve a great deal, but know that they can do little without the efforts of others. Moving from talk to action is imperative, but especially in the times we live in. It requires commitment, curiosity and courage. It requires leadership. Nothing less will break through the competitive pressures of today's marketplace.

© 1999. Patrick J. McKenna

SOLVING SOME COMMON MEETING PROBLEMS

The practice group meeting should be an integral part of bringing together the members of the team to deal with important issues affecting the group's progress. Yet many professionals view these meetings as a complete waste of time, rather than contributing to their success. That's because most practice group meetings are prone to a number of problems, ranging from lack of focus to lack of follow up.

Let's take a closer look at solving common meeting problems.

Meetings with No Clear Purpose

The first commandment of meeting management is: Always prepare an agenda in advance. Include not only topics to be addressed but also the time for each topic and the expected outcome. An expected outcome isn't a predetermined solution. It is notification of what's expected of meeting participants. For example, if cost cutting were an agenda item, the expected outcome might be three viable approaches to cutting department costs by 15 percent.

The preset agenda isn't cast in stone. As the meeting begins, invite participants to add to the agenda and renegotiate allotted times, taking new items into account. Limit items to a number that can be addressed in the time allowed.

Late Starts

If you wait even five minutes to accommodate latecomers, more people will come five minutes later next time. People adjust their arrivals to when they expect the meeting to start. If you always start on time, you send a powerful message. And you won't have to disrupt the meeting to update latecomers if you appoint a recorder to keep detailed notes on flipcharts. Latecomers can catch up by reading the notes.

Meetings That Drag on Interminably

When conversations get intense, it's hard to attend to time constraints. So, appoint a timekeeper and adhere zealously to his or her reminders. When a topic deserves extra time, either the manager or group should decide whether to drop an agenda item to allow more time for the hot one or to defer continued discussion of the hot one to another meeting. The latter course allows time for a new perspective and for the gathering of new information.

Some people are advocates of stand up meetings to keep people from settling in. While the stand-up approach works for ad hoc meetings, it's not feasible for two hours of agenda items.

When the Power Partner Won't Let Go

Managers can dominate meetings in two ways. Either they do all the talking, or they ask for input but make decisions that ignore it. After a few such meetings, people tune out mentally.

Be upfront. If people are there just to listen, tell them so in advance. If you want their opinions so you can make a good decision yourself, tell them that, and show them how what they say will help you. If you commit to group decision making, stick to that promise. Be careful not to coerce others into agreeing with you just because you are the boss.

The best way to police yourself is to appoint someone else to facilitate the meeting. Then you can participate like everyone else. Be sure to pick a facilitator with the skill and courage to restrain you if, in your enthusiasm, you begin to take over.

Meeting Reruns

You know the scenario. Everyone brings a favorite axe to grind. Restricting how often people talk doesn't work because it restricts new input also. Restraining people from raising their pet peeves just validates their conviction that no one is listening to them. Instead, to discourage the rehashing of old issues, begin by legitimizing them: Record all remarks on the flip chart. The second time an issue comes up, point to the record to indicate the concern has been heard.

Nonstop Talkers

Writing meeting notes on flip charts helps control the nonstop talker too. While thanking the person for giving input, you can point out all her recorded remarks. Their abundance will be a reminder that she has dominated the meeting. Ask her to join you in encouraging others to share their ideas.

You may be able to control a loudmouth next time by appointing him or her facilitator or recorder. Both roles are highly visible, which will make an attention-seeker happy, but both restrain the job holder from giving input.

Negative People

To keep the naysayers from poisoning the atmosphere, make it a practice to defer negative comments until you have a list of what people like about an idea. With the pluses staring them in the face (from the flipchart), people won't be so strongly swayed by negative comments. The owners of each idea will have backing to support their opinions when confronted by That'll never work.

Meeting or Melee

To keep meetings from disintegrating into arguments, try this ground rule: First agree, then refute. That means that before anyone criticizes someone else's idea, the critic must find something in that idea to agree with. Then the critic states his or her opinion as an addition to the idea, not a negation of it.

Majority Rules but Minority Wins

Voting produces a win-lose solution. And sometimes the losers take all by sabotaging implementation. Guide the group to a consensus decision instead. Remember, consensus doesn't mean everybody has to love the outcome. Rather, it means everyone can live with it. So work on revising those parts of a potential solution that some participants can't live with.

What Next?

Before closing any meeting, summarize all the key discussion points. Then ask each person to recap what he or she is going to do to implement the decisions made. And be sure to follow up with a written record of the decisions and tasks. Then keep in touch with people to find out how they are progressing.