And it’s STILL January, and STILL, nearly every person and every business is feeling a cash flow squeeze. And just for kicks, I am STILL serving up my favourite business process—continuous improvement—with a generous side order of “Just DO It.”

So, what is continuous improvement again?

Sometimes, it is referred to as continual improvement. Truly, it is the ongoing process of improving products, services, and processes. While it is NOT the most glamorous task, but when done even partly correctly, it is guaranteed to work, elevate your business, and boost your metrics. The journey of continuous improvement is not just about the destination. It is also about the transformations you find and steer and the growth you watch bloom from it all.

It is neither immediate nor instantaneous. It takes time. Yet, once started and anchored into our business, continuous improvement vastly shortens the upward trajectory of the metrics we salivate for.

Let me remind you that these process ideas are not about quickly completing tasks. Instead, they’re about easily identifying the best manageable steps to integrate into your business operations.

So far, we’ve covered your DDC (Digital Decluttering Cleanse) and your CCR (Cold Client Reactivation), and we’ve suggested an easy way to identify and get some of your customers to buy more from you. Today, we are covering your

Triple Ms

M&Ms? Nope. Mindless, Myopic, Meetings

I can hear you groan. We gotta have meetings, I just wanna make them more effective. Maybe. Let’s do a bit of digging first and then figure out if you really NEED them before we tinker with their effectiveness.

Here is a five-part process to make your wishes come true. And a big surprise: There is not much in spreadsheets today.

How much do they cost?

I assume you call the meetings. A simple formula is the total number of attendees at their hourly rate and the meeting duration COMPARED to the meeting outcomes.

For example, a two-hour scheduling meeting might be five people with a combined hourly rate of $625. That is $1,250. What are the meeting outcomes? Supply chain wait lines minimized, better shuffling of the workload amongst people, less stress and errors for the day? It’s your business, so you set the parameters. Or a sales meeting that lasts four hours. Four salespeople attend for a combined hourly rate of $1800. That amounts to $7,200. What are the outcomes for that amount of money? A demonstration of how to close faster and remove the admin burden? Some departmental sharing of best practices which should at least cover the costs of the meeting? What do you want the outcomes to be? If you are like most of us, you probably see the cost of the meetings far outweighing the benefits. The next step is to

Check your Meeting Housekeeping

Do you have something in place to cover pre-meeting requirements and post-meeting deliverables? It seems so simple, yet it isn’t done nearly enough. For example, do you use agendas? Do you stick to the agendas? Is someone assigned the role of agenda preparer and scribe? The scribe does more than take notes. The scribe ensures that everyone knows their assigned action items BEFORE leaving the meeting. In this day of automated note-taking, the scribe will get back to all participants and remind them of their action items.

Once you have the basics in place, here’s a serious question

How do you decide on the Meeting?

Generally, you decide to hold meetings based on two criteria. Why and Time.

Let’s tackle the why part first. Decision trees are wonderful tools for determining the necessity of meeting. They are powerful because they are visual, and everyone can see at a glance if a meeting is required or not. Develop your first decision tree for your most frequent, annoying, or time-intensive topic. Then, after you and your team get the kinks out of the process and are happy with the results, tackle another meeting type.

We all know that work expands to fit the space. So do meetings. Whatever time you give a meeting, chances are the final version will take longer. So, can you shorten your meetings? For example, experiment with two kinds of basic meetings. Twenty minutes and 45 minutes. That will begin to train your team to arrive prepared, on time and ready to work, get to the point faster and stick to the agenda. Can you implement hard stops? Essentially, it doesn’t get done if it doesn’t get covered. Admittedly, this is a two-edged sword. The chair must ensure that the most important agenda items are covered first. Some things will always be carried over.

Have you explored all the alternatives?

You know as well as I do that many meetings are nothing more than uncomfortable group hugs. Far too often, their content could be handled faster with a handful of people, a phone call or two, a carefully structured email, or even an ad-hoc tech tool. Have you explored all the different options AND included said options on your decision tree matrix?

Do you have a tracking system?

Yes, you really do want to measure the effectiveness of your new way of conducting meetings. This does not need to be complicated. Use the original ‘how much do they cost’ calculation above and keep measuring at every meeting. Be sure to include at least one outcome for focusing more on business goals. Watch the statistics move. If they don’t improve, look deeper into the process to see what can be tinkered with.

Remember to include the non-cash, non-profit-generating variables. Less meeting time means less overtime, which means more time to spend with family and friends, less stress, more creativity, or more sanity. Never underestimate the non-cash outcomes.

Final thoughts

This one is not quite as cut and dried in terms of real cash returns. The metrics can feel more esoteric. When you get the meeting compass tilted in a better direction, your stress level decreases and your output increases. Guaranteed. And some days, that feeling is worth far more than an extra peso in the bank account.

Next week is the final continuous improvement suggestion. And it will surprise you.