As we enter into the second month of 2020, have you hosted a firm-wide meeting to go over the plans and goals your firm will be focusing on in 2020, and nailing down the details of how you will achieve these goals? Quarterly meetings provide an excellent opportunity for you to educate all your employees on your vision. They can be instrumental in solidifying core values, refining mission statements, and in identifying the key goals for each quarter, as well as nailing down the who, what, when and where details that will make your Big Plans materialize in the coming months.
As you know, from hearing Ken speak about building a business and making it GROW, having firm-wide meetings is essential. It is important that all members on your team buy into your vision, and are inspired and motivated to play their vital parts in the group enterprise. If everyone understands where you want to take the firm, and is made a part of the goal setting and brainstorming, it’s amazing to see what a difference this can make for the quality of work each team member provides. In this successful paradigm, the sum becomes greater than its individual parts.
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In December, PILMMA held our quarterly live Business Meeting in Myrtle Beach. (In case you didn’t know, PILMMA’s talent is spread out across the country, from the Carolinas to the Midwest and Western part of the country.) I’d like to take a moment to share something we implemented in this recent quarterly meeting in the hopes it will provide you with some fresh ideas for shaping your firm’s next strategy sessions.
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Prior to the meeting, Ken asked ALL employees to read Verne Harnish’s seminal book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, and to come to the meeting prepared to discuss the book. Significantly, he took it a step further by assigning each of us a chapter to present to the group with the additional requirement that each of us outline our assigned chapters in advance. Each outline was then sent to Ken’s administrative assistant, to be compiled into a master outline. I’ll confess that initially, I chaffed at being “assigned” a book to read – as if I was back in school again. I don’t know about you, but I am way past the Socratic Method at this point… But, the truth of the matter is that this idea was brilliant!
First off, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is a great read, based on the leadership and managing principles used by John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil Company. The book provides a multitude of guiding principles to help you grow and sustain a successful business, and it’s written in a straight forward style with stories and examples to help drive home the principles. But here’s the key: by assigning each of us a chapter, and expecting us to present that chapter to each other, Ken knew we would take the book, or at least that chapter, to heart. Outlining the chapter ensured that we weren’t just reading on autopilot. Instead, we were reading and then pulling out the key points with an eye towards communicating those points to others. It drew us in and caused us to become excited about the text. As a result of this structured assignment, we understood the material far better than if we’d just been asked simply to read the book, or if Ken had opted to just present the book to us during the meeting.
Something else happened as well: Once the meeting began, and we took turns presenting and discussing each chapter. We were all engaged, we were participating, and we were brainstorming as a team to see how we could apply these principles to our business. Instead of just reading a book, we were making the book “ours” and really putting the principles to work. We were all sharing a unified frame of reference and building something together. No one was fiddling with their phones, shuffling papers, etc. Instead, we were drawn into a group dynamic. From that point on in the meeting, our brainstorming, goal setting, task identification, etc. was focused and fruitful. We worked as a team, and we left the meeting motivated to accomplish great things in the coming quarter.
Seeing how well Ken’s “assignment” worked for us, I would encourage you to find a book that you feel merits thought- and that can help your team accomplish your goals and firm vision, and then incorporate it into your firm’s next quarterly meeting. ◆
