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Conducting planning meetings in the sales department. How to Run Effective Meetings

Boris Metlenko
Source: ABC of a “sales” manager

Today you were surprised to learn that the boss has decided to become closer to the people, and from Monday you will have to report at a five-minute meeting on the work done and publicly make plans. If you have any idea

Apparently, your boss has finally gotten around to some book like “Team Management for Dummies” or was advised by his senior comrades. In fact, this is one of the basic rules of a manager’s work:

1. Set a task

2. Assign executors

3. Determine deadlines

4. Monitor the performers during the execution of the assignment.

A report at a five-minute meeting implies that employees put pressure on themselves and help control themselves. And the boss will sit, give out new instructions and make notes in his diary. This procedure is aimed at creating an atmosphere in the team: “We have nothing to hide - we are a team. The management keeps its finger on the pulse of events. The staff is not abandoned. Big brother is watching you".

This is so that you know what motivates your management.

I have two news for you: one is good, and the second... decide for yourself.

The good news is that few managers are capable of following their own rules punctually. (This whole mess with planning meetings may end soon)

Another news:

If this has not previously been accepted in your organization, then change is coming, and you have a chance to make yourself noticed and appreciated. I'm talking about a career.

1. Your plans must be realistic.

A real plan is one that has real action behind it. A task that you know well and imagine how to complete it from the first to the last step. To any question posed before or during work, you must give a clear and detailed answer. (Managers who think in concrete rather than vague categories appreciate this).

I will give examples of how to distinguish an abstract boss from a concrete one.

A boss who thinks clearly uses turns of phrase in his speech, every word of which can be seen and felt. "I don't see results." "Show me exactly what you did." “You are not visible, you are not felt at work.” “Take it upon yourself,” etc. He is focused on results, his element is exact numbers and exact dates.

A boss who thinks abstractly and only abstractly will sound like this: “Let’s outline the prospects.” “Let’s discuss the possibilities of interaction,” “Your order must be completed as quickly as possible.” Such a person is usually process-oriented. He can do a lot of work, he is constantly busy with something, but the output is close to zero.

(For those who know what NLP is: The concrete chief is a kinesthetic-visual or visual-kinesthetic. The abstract chief is an auditory one. Check, observe)

2. Include unverifiable tasks in your plan. (Simulator of vigorous activity)

Unverifiable plans are an area of your activity that cannot be verified unless you are constantly sitting over your head all day long. Why is this necessary? But why. No matter what programs you develop, no matter what projects you hatch, circumstances will definitely interfere and hinder you. These will be colleagues and relatives with their questions and problems, bad weather with your own conclusions and the bosses with your own report. To get a head start on unforeseen work and there are unverifiable plans. (I don’t recommend overusing it, 1-2 untested assignments per week will be enough)

“What did you do for 2 hours of working time?” - asks the boss.

“I was waiting for a reception at the Housing and Communal Services Committee, as I reported to you at the planning meeting on Monday,” you answer cheerfully.

That's it, no questions.

A programmer I know wrote an application that, when launched, displayed running digital columns, blue bars of progress indicators with changing percentages, etc. When he needed to go away on his own business, he launched this program, said to everyone, “Don’t touch the computer, my database is being re-indexed,” and left. However, he turned in all his duties and developments on time.(!)

3. When discussing the time you need to complete work tasks, ask for one and a half to two times more than you really need. Get it done earlier - report earlier and gain a reputation as a diligent employee, or spend the saved time on other things. If unforeseen difficulties arise in your work, you will still cope within the promised time frame and will remain with the reputation of a reliable employee: “If he promised, he will do it.”

There is a rule: to complete a project it will take twice as long and three times as long more money than originally thought." Sounds unimportant, right? However, this is a rule from a smart book, confirmed by life. I first encountered him when my friends and I opened a cafe, where I later was the manager. The rule worked accurate to two days and one hundred rubles. Then there were many more confirmations. Look around you, ask your friends. If they have better indicators, it means that I have something to learn from them.

4. For the current routine, which does not bring tangible results and takes a lot of time, already at the 3-4th planning meeting ask yourself an assistant or the ability to shift this work to a less active or unloaded employee. (If he is assigned to you, this is the beginning of the formation of your team).

That's all about planning, actually. Let's move on to the reports.

5. Avoid reporting intermediate results., unless, of course, it’s for a long-term project or management doesn’t require you to report immediately.

People need to know WHAT you do, not HOW you do it.

Sooner or later, mastery will come to you - this is the ability to cope with work quickly and easily. Unfortunately, in this country they do not like ease; here the hard, persistent work of a non-professional is held in high esteem. (non-professionals are cheaper)

If you are still asked: “At what stage is the implementation of SOMETHING GLOBAL???” - have a clear, streamlined answer in stock like: “At the stage of consideration of documents by clients.” “An agreement in principle has been reached to meet during this (future) week.” etc.

6. Brevity, accuracy, clarity. These are the criteria for your speech at the planning meeting. Be prepared to answer additional questions.

7. When reporting on the work done, do not be modest. You don’t need other people’s laurels, but what’s yours is only yours. If someone helped you, be sure to acknowledge it (people will thank you). If they interfere, then threaten: “I’ll report to the authorities at the planning meeting.”

And one more small digression. Please do not consider this text as a guide to messing with your superiors. What is written here will help you create comfortable working conditions for yourself. Note, not being at work, but working. Unfortunately, there is one more rule of office life: “Whoever plows, they ride.” These recommendations will allow you to build your own in the office work area, protected from unnecessary claims from management (“You see, I’m busy!”, “I’ve never let you down, so give me the opportunity to earn money normally for you”) and at the same time using all available opportunities for effective work and career growth.

I will be very glad to receive comments, criticism, and suggestions.

Achieving coordinated, fast and efficient work of the team is not an easy task for any manager. The boss’s task is to develop a unified action strategy for each subordinate, monitor their work and correct it. To achieve fruitful work, you need to understand how to conduct meetings, how to correctly instruct subordinates for a certain period.

Planning meeting - discussion and distribution of work tasks planned for a certain time. Such meetings can be divided into several types depending on their type, time and quantity.

The first type includes reporting meetings (these are necessary for management to report on how work tasks are being carried out on this moment), discussion meetings (where proposals are reviewed and changes to the action plan are discussed) and motivational meetings (where everyone gets their own task in the process of solving the main issue).

Based on time, you can hold daily, weekly or monthly meetings.

If we take the quantitative factor as a basis, planning meetings can be divided into general or mass (at which all employees are present) and closed (when a separate group or department meets).

Holding planning meetings has certain advantages:

Maintains discipline and reduces tardiness.
Helps to clearly and clearly set tasks for the team. A short-term daily plan is much more useful and productive than a six-month plan.
Indicates the actual performance indicator. This quality extends if, at the planning meeting, employees present reports to their superiors on what they have done.

Don’t forget about the high motivational role of meetings. Conducting a meeting competently means in a positive way influence the mood of employees, give a charge for fruitful work and stimulate them to improve performance. In addition, this property helps to establish positive relationships between the team and management.

On the other side, holding planning meetings also has its downsides:

Long meetings take away the strength and energy of employees.
Sudden, unscheduled meetings are usually ineffective.

To avoid such negative factors, meetings should be conducted thoughtfully.

Expert opinion

At the planning meeting, employees propose new ideas for business development and increasing sales

Hasmik Gevorgyan,

General Director and one of the owners of the Provocation chain of stores in Moscow

We reward and support our employees in every possible way who are interested in increasing brand awareness. Our franchisees decided to hold special meetings twice a month, at which employees express their thoughts and suggestions for developing the company and increasing sales. The authors of the most interesting projects and ideas receive a bonus of up to 15% of their salary.

Some of our best T-shirt designs were originally conceived and suggested by employees. Thanks to our employees, we increase the company's visibility by sponsoring cultural youth events.

A striking example: one of our employees in Tula offered to participate in municipal sports competitions and evenings in clubs. The creativity and determination of this employee was the key to the fact that our advertising appeared in popular city cafes. Ultimately, sales in the city of Tula doubled. The employee’s income increased similarly—a few months later he became the store director.

3 components of successful planning meetings

Information component. Make the material interesting and useful for those listening. If boring information cannot be avoided, try to present it in an unusual way. The information presented at the planning meeting should be useful and exciting. If you want to run successful meetings, it's best not to share bland and dull information.
Emotional component. Fascinating material with poor delivery is bad material. Remember the university - spending time in some classes was boring, students literally slept in class, while in others everyone wanted to get to the bottom of things and discuss.
The leader who conducts the meeting. The authority of the speaker directly affects the assimilation of information. If you have not yet achieved high rhetorical skills, work harder on points 1 and 2 before you host the meeting.

How to conduct planning meetings without employee resistance

It's no secret that employees often have a negative attitude towards planning meetings. It is worth understanding the reasons for this perception.

Firstly, the original origin of such planning meetings is associated among people with a time when communication means did not allow coordinating the work of people and it was necessary to gather in person as a whole team and discuss important work issues for hours. Since there are no other ways to find out or discuss important points there simply wasn’t any, tons of questions, comments and wishes regarding work accumulated for the meeting. Therefore, the meeting had to take several hours.

Secondly, many office workers are annoyed by the fact that planning meetings take up 1/5 of their total working time. At the same time, there is not so much to discuss - the boss’s speech usually takes up half of the entire meeting.

Third, if you hold a meeting every day, then employees will soon treat it as an event “for show.” Employees will not report in detail and interestingly about the progress of work or any changes, because they simply may not happen for such a long time. short term. The main goals of any company are long-term plans, so you should not take away valuable time from employees to listen to “things are normal, we are working.” Only in critical cases, emergency situations and urgent tasks does it become necessary to hold daily meetings.

How to conduct a planning meeting correctly by choosing the appropriate format

1. Information meeting

You can hold such a planning meeting on Mondays, make it a weekly event for each department of your company, for each department head. The purpose of this meeting is to find out what was accomplished over the past week, what was achieved, and what is planned for this week. Managers can communicate important information to subordinates and motivate them to work productively. Don’t delay the meeting – it’s best to hold the meeting within 30 minutes.

2. Distribution of tasks

This short planning meeting is best held at the beginning of the day. Managers give out instructions for the day and explain them to employees. If there are no questions or important information, such a meeting will not take up much working time from employees.

3. Planning meeting

Such a planning meeting should be held after all employees have been notified in advance in writing or in electronic format. Let them prepare on the topic, set a meeting time and a meeting secretary. Also send conclusions and results from the meeting to everyone who was present or expected to be at the planning meeting. It is important to note that such a planning meeting should not be held for too long. If this cannot be avoided, be sure to arrange time-outs for rest or snacks.

4. Creative planning meeting

If this time you have nothing to offer the team, good option will hold a planning meeting in a non-standard format. This could be a competition best idea or brainstorming.

5. Planning meeting for conflict resolution

Don't forget about human factor and possible misunderstandings within the team.

The correct position of the boss is to identify and solve such a problem. It would be more appropriate than ever to hold a meeting for this purpose. You need to give each person the opportunity to explain their position and tell them what exactly they are not happy with. The format of such a meeting should not be strict; let people talk or argue, giving reasons for their opinions. Once you have identified the challenges together, you need to overcome them. You don’t have to take this on yourself; HR specialists and senior managers will help you.

You need to hold a meeting by selecting interesting topic for everyone - so that everyone wants to speak out, and you have the opportunity to regulate the conversation and correct its direction.

Summarize the meeting, collect what participants said, and share the results with them.

There is no need to warn colleagues from the very beginning that the planning meeting is being held because of a conflict that has arisen. The exception is special meetings organized solely to resolve such situations.

How to increase the benefits of planning meetings

Poorly organized planning sessions, meetings and meetings are absolutely useless and even harmful. Because by themselves they do not create added value, but a huge amount of time can be spent on them.

Find out the rules for organizing effective planning meetings from the Commercial Director magazine, which will advance the work process with a minimum of time spent.

How to conduct planning meetings daily: step-by-step algorithm

Step 1. Determine the goals of the morning planning meeting

Every organization must present and plan the results of its work. Based on your goals, you need to draw up a step-by-step plan for their implementation.

Select the goals from the list that are appropriate for your business:

Setting goals

The main reason for holding team meetings is task planning. An employee's daily plan should not include more than 3 tasks and 1 focus. Ideally, each employee himself sets out tasks and focuses for the day and reports this to the manager.

To set realistic and achievable goals, use. It is best to plan your work using specific numbers. Visualize the information: it is better to hold the event in a room with a projector or a board on which you write down the main tasks. Mark your focus for the day with a marker and emphasize it during the conversation.

It is best to have each employee write down their plan.

Feedback from employees

Very often, employees, faced with a problem or an incomprehensible situation, do not report it to their boss. Typically, this is discussed between colleagues and is not considered worthy of being reported to management. It is necessary to establish constant contact with subordinates. Employees should get used to telling their manager what concerns and worries them in the process of performing their duties.

In this case, the manager needs to hold separate meetings to listen to each problem and respond to it appropriately, even if he believes that the situation is not worth it special attention. Also, look for the root of the problem, not the culprit. Assign a specific person responsible for fixing the problem, and set a clear deadline for this.

Transfer of experience and training

Be the first to speak - tell your colleagues how you would carry out the assigned task yourself. Start a discussion, ask employees how to do this or that work better and more fruitfully. You can conduct a planning meeting in the format of a game or take a business case so that everyone can participate in the discussion.

You can conduct training: tell or repeat scripts, typical answers, product benefits, company promotions, and the like with colleagues. Involve the entire team in this process.

Don’t repeat yourself, teach your employees something new every day, develop them!

Increased team spirit

Speak about the company as a close-knit team - use the words “we”, “our team” in your speech.

Report something new and interesting over the last day: what happened yesterday, company news, its successes (even small ones). Just because you have an internal email newsletter doesn't mean that everyone reads it. Therefore, the most interesting and important things can be told again at the planning meeting. If the information is not entirely positive, employees will have the opportunity to discuss a plan of action.

Remember important dates for employees, talk about them (birthdays of the employees themselves, their family members, children, an important event for the company and so on).

Team motivation

You can hold a meeting in order to charge the team with positivity for the coming day. To do this you need:

Praise one of the employees (best in sales, good quality, gratitude from the client, solution difficult situation etc.).
When distributing tasks, explain how the work will have a positive impact on common goals companies. Let every employee know that they are important.
Use motivational words and phrases: “Let's do it!”, “Show what you can do!” and so on.
Show that you believe in each employee, often say phrases such as “We can”, “We will succeed”, “I am confident”, etc.

An important rule for conducting effective meetings is to talk only about positive things, do not reprimand anyone at the planning meeting, and do not scold the team. In the morning you should only talk about positive things!

Be sure to use all the goals mentioned above, but not all need to have meetings at once.

Step 2. Draw up regulations

Once you've chosen your morning meeting goals, you need to decide how to conduct them. The regulations can be printed and hung in the office where the planning meeting is held.

Decide how long you intend to hold the meeting and write it down in the rules. Fifteen minutes is enough for an effective meeting. In addition, enter specific plan: What you will talk about at the meeting. To do this you need:

The planning meeting should be conducted on a positive note. Greet the team, recognize one of the employees for the work done and successes over the past day. At the end of the meeting, you can congratulate the team, wish them a pleasant day, or motivate them to work productively.

At the beginning of the planning meeting, report what was accomplished over the past day. Set new tasks based on what you have done. After this, you can conduct training or begin repetition.

Get a reaction from the team, communicate with them at the end of the meeting so as not to prolong the event. If the topic for discussion is too difficult and requires more than two minutes, take it to a separate meeting or assign it to a specific employee.

Step 3. Getting ready for the planning meeting

In order to conduct a planning meeting correctly and competently, you should prepare for it in advance. It is better to prepare for the morning meeting in the evening, and be sure to write everything down.

Daily goals should align with longer-term goals and take into account the previous day's challenges. Separately for each item, write down what you will talk about: positive news, problems, recent events, training.

Step 4. Conduct a planning meeting

Start holding the meeting using your plan. Greet the team. Keep track of the time so that the meeting does not last longer than 15 minutes.

During the meeting, observe the reaction of employees to each stage of the planning meeting. This way you can determine what was interesting to the team and what was not. If employees are not interested in some information, consider whether you can remove it from the plan or change the way it is presented.

You can understand how effectively you conducted the planning meeting by looking at the quality of employees’ work and the level of sales. If productivity has increased, then the planning meeting was organized correctly.

Expert opinion

How to conduct a non-standard morning planning meeting

Dmitry Grishin,

Chairman of the Board of Directors and one of the founders of Mail.Ru Group in Moscow

For us, holding meetings of an unusual format is a common thing. Each of them takes less than half an hour. Planning meetings are open to everyone; any employees can participate, not just those directly related to the topic of the planning meeting. We speak while standing in order to move somewhat away from the usual format of work in the workplace.

Find as many as possible creative ideas to solve problems that have arisen, even those that seem completely unrealistic, is the main goal with which we started holding such planning meetings. Proposals are criticized strictly to the point, without emotion, speaking only about the technical side of the issue.

Everything proposed by the team is entered into a special database. Holding events of this format means giving employees the opportunity to hear each other and not get hung up on an insignificant problem. Everyone feels involved in a common cause, important for the company, and this, like nothing else, gives an incentive to work.

How to properly conduct a planning meeting in a department

Each of us understands how much department heads have to do. In addition to regular work, they take on problem solving and general organization of the entire department. The effectiveness of a boss depends on what management methods and tools he uses. Is it worth spending time and holding meetings in this case?

It all depends on the manager’s approach to the issue of planning meetings. In one case, bosses approach planning meetings very formally, even if company rules stipulate that such meetings must be held. Such a leader believes that the main thing is more effort, fewer meetings. Other department heads decide to hold meetings on their own initiative, because they know how effective such a tool is for improving the quality of the team’s work.

If the mentor of an entire department believes that meetings need to be held simply because “they have to,” then he should not waste time holding planning meetings. Any events organized just for show only have a negative impact on work. Based on the name itself, a planning meeting is a competent planning of actions to achieve the company’s big goals.

Based on the Deming cycle, a planning meeting is a periodic check (Check) of the work of the team in order to change or redirect movement (Akt), if necessary.

How often to hold planning meetings in the department? Daily meetings in the department are necessary only for new or inexperienced employees who cannot cope without constant supervision and advice from their superiors. For a more cohesive and experienced team, meetings need to be held once a week, on the same day, approximately the same in time and structure of the planning meeting. This is necessary for the purpose of discipline.

Most often, the manager refuses to hold a planning meeting because he considers it a waste of time. Interaction with the team turns into a short monologue without feedback from employees. With this approach, most functions are lost, except perhaps informational and, partly, disciplinary.

For any manager, interacting with a group is much more difficult than interacting with each employee individually. Managing an entire team at once is the skill of an experienced and good boss. Such a leader knows how to conduct a planning meeting correctly: quickly and to the point, while receiving “return” from the group, discussing some issue with them and, based on this, regulating the work of the department. It is best to keep it to a half-hour meeting (+- 15 minutes). A person is physiologically programmed with just such a time for the greatest concentration of attention.

The introduction of a new event - a planning meeting - will require some time. Often you will need to hold more than one meeting to get such a tool to work. If the head of a department begins to listen to the team's feedback, he will receive a lot new information, which no one had expressed before. But now a chance has arisen - the leader himself asked! It will be necessary to determine individual roles for employees and their purpose in the work of the entire group, overcome objections, and argue their position in the best possible way. Often, managers do not complete the implementation of a new tool and, being a couple of steps away from the ideal result, return to less effective management, that is, holding conversations separately with each employee.

10 rules for conducting a morning meeting in the sales department

Often, sales managers are good at their main responsibility of talking to people and selling products, but at the same time they are not at all able to act according to a plan, analyze the work performed and work consistently. If a manager has already received many orders for this month, he stops working as actively, makes fewer cold calls, and does not deal with passive clients.

Having noticed such a tendency, the manager can inform the manager about this at the planning meeting, saying that his shirking from work has been noticed and is being monitored. Of course, managers will look for an excuse not to participate in the meeting, arguing that they are busy. A meeting can be held for administrative management purposes, when the manager can influence the work and improve it if he notices a decline or emergency.

To conduct a planning meeting as effectively as possible, you need to adhere to these rules:

Rule 1. Frequency

Morning meetings should be held at the same time every day, regardless of your mood. Over time, the planning meeting will become a habit and will serve as a signal for managers to start working. There have been cases when the absence of a meeting or its poor organization broke the usual routine of the managers’ day and took away good mood and the desire to work.

At the morning planning meeting, managers must fully come to their senses, wake up and understand - it’s time to start working!

Rule 2. Discipline

3 keys to an effective planning meeting are to hold meetings with a precise structure, specific goals and the same time. If the rules are followed, the planning meeting has a positive effect on the work of managers; deviation from them, on the contrary, harms work.

The meeting must be held at the same time. Employees must arrive at the office early and not be late. You need to get ready for work before and during the meeting so that you can immediately begin work after the meeting is over. Each manager should prepare in advance for the planning meeting, set goals for the day and calculate all indicators, so as not to take up time from the entire team during the meeting and not to be distracted himself.

If you decide to have a game-based meeting, allow approximately 45 minutes for this. This is more than for a regular meeting, but it is very effective for team work and financial indicators companies.

Rule 3. Energy

The morning meeting sets the mood for employees for the entire day.

If you hold a boring and uninteresting planning meeting, then there will be no positive effect from the work that day. Provide information clearly and interestingly, do not allow the team to go off topic or ask about things that do not relate to the overall work of the team.

At the planning meeting, you should only talk about what applies to all employees. Such an event is a collective effort, and not just a time to sit back.

Rule 4. Train your managers constantly

Every time at the end of the working day, find out from the managers how the work went - what difficulties arose, what objections from clients could not be overcome. Summarize the information so that you can spend part of the morning planning meeting sorting out the situation with the team.

First, let the manager himself describe the problem that has arisen. After this, briefly review the theory on the topic, such as the argumentation section. After this, brainstorm during the game: the manager facing the complexity will take on the role of the client, and the rest of his subordinates offer options for solving the problem.

The discussion must be conducted in such a way that each employee takes part in finding a solution. You don’t need to explain yourself every time how to cope with a difficulty; let the team itself find a way out through interaction with each other.

This approach with daily training will enable managers to constantly improve and not be afraid to face a problem.

Rule 5. Constantly monitor what is planned

The rule is very clear from the name. If you stop monitoring the work of managers, you will not see effective work.

Rule 6. Team motivation

When conducting a planning meeting, report not only the overall results for the previous day, but also highlight the managers with the best and worst performance. This will not negatively affect the work of employees, but will only provide an incentive to work just as well or improve if something went wrong yesterday.

It is important to note not only quantitative indicators, but also the quality of work. Praise the managers who communicated better with the client than others. You can listen to employee conversations yourself or contact the quality control department for a report.

Rule 7. Specificity in plans

When planning his day at the morning meeting, the manager must decide what sales he will make, who he will meet, and what payment he will receive. It is necessary to get used to conducting an event in such a way that managers always provide this data in specific numbers and names of organizations. Let the manager clearly name the companies he will call and visit, even if he does not have specific responses from clients planned for today.

In addition, the daily plan should be part of the monthly goal. In other words, if the sales plan for the month is 500,000 rubles, then the salesperson cannot plan to receive 15,000 per day, since such a pace will not lead to the completion of a long-term task.

It is imperative to fight the objections of your own employees who do not want to set themselves a high bar, citing superstition or simple dissatisfaction. Train employees to set ambitious goals.

Do not forget that the plan must be real and feasible, and not just said. The manager must understand that the task set for the day is real, and strive to implement it.

Rule 8. Check the readiness of the entire team

Before sending your subordinates to their places, check their readiness. It's about how about external resources(materials for presentation, business cards, telephone databases, etc.), and internal, “human” ones - is everyone in the right mood or do you need to work with someone separately in order to motivate them to perform productive activities.

Rule 9. A powerful call to action at the end of the meeting

To end the planning meeting, come up with a bright motivating phrase that will serve as a signal to start work - for example, “Get to work!”, “Forward!” etc.

This phrase will serve as an anchor that will further energize the team.

Rule 10. Visualization

To conduct a planner with greater effectiveness, it is imperative to create a board on which the results of the meeting and rating will be attached, so that employees can see their overall achievements, their indicator and how close they are to fulfilling the monthly plan.

How to conduct a planning meeting every week

If you want to conduct your planning meeting effectively, you need to consider two conditions. First of all, the time allotted for the meeting is not long, about half an hour. The second is notes during the planning meeting. The goals that leaders voice must be written down.

The weekly planning meeting consists of four stages:

Stage 1. Announcement of the company's goals

The best way to conduct a weekly meeting is to begin by reiterating the company's main or long-term goal. For example, “A successful company with a large market.” After this, name the task for more short period- like “Increase the organization’s income this year by 3 times.”

Stage 2. Department heads take turns telling what they did last week to achieve the goal.

It is necessary to conduct a planning meeting in order to obtain specific information from managers about the work done. You should not allow general phrases or uninformative speech, such as “We managed to increase the efficiency of the department by 10%.” In such a case, it is worth correctly asking what measures were taken.

If the department head continues to give out information general, the meeting leader should interrupt him and directly ask if there is information worthy of review at the meeting. If not, you need to continue the meeting, passing the floor to another department.

If you hold meetings of this format, you can clearly see the results of the work of each department of the company. In addition, this way it becomes clear which of the leaders is working hard for the benefit of the organization, and who is just pretending.

Stage 3. A goal is set for the next week for the entire company, and the facilitatorachievesconsent of the participants for this purpose

Give each manager the opportunity to tell what his department is going to do this week, how it will carry out the plan. Write down your planned tasks in a journal.

In addition, department heads will have the opportunity to interact with each other: ask another department to do something if joint efforts are needed. After discussion, such goals should also be written down in a journal.

Step 4: The meeting leader asks if they are ready to truly achieve their goal this week and announces the start.

This form of planning meeting helps to achieve the most positive results. Department heads begin to work hard and achieve high results in their department or vacate positions for more valuable personnel. It is with the help of such meetings that you can understand which of your colleagues is making every effort, and who is just putting on an appearance.

Expert opinion

The best option for conducting weekly planning meetings is multi-level

Vladimir Kiselev,

General Director, partner of JSC "SHERP Company" in Moscow

Weekly planning meetings are mandatory events for each company, at which the results of work are reviewed and discussed and goals are set for the next week. It is best to hold meetings at each level. First, the heads of departments and CEO, and after that planning meetings are held in each department with its immediate superior. At secondary meetings, managers can also announce information that applies to the entire company and each employee.

It is important to conduct a planning meeting not only within the strict framework of the stated topic, but also to give employees the opportunity to find out information of interest and discuss work issues. The role of such meetings is very great: this is how the team learns about new goals, changes in the plan or other news. The CEO should hold meetings with employees who do not participate in weekly planning meetings once a month or quarter.

How to Conduct Planning Meetings Using a Creative Approach

1. Choose an unusual place

Meetings can be held not only in the office. Search a nice place in your city, embankment, pedestrian street or cafe. The main thing is that you can quickly get there from and to work.

A place that colleagues will like: a coffee shop, an embankment, a park area. The only caveat is that the place should be located close to the office so that everyone can get there quickly.

2. Schedule a non-standard time

Try holding meetings not in the morning, but, for example, at lunch (just don’t leave the team without food) or 30 minutes before the end of the working day (this speeds up the pace of work!).

3. Materials used

Give stationery not to all participants, but a set of paper and a pen for 2-3 people. This way, they will decide for themselves who will write what.

4. Take away everyone’s phones before the meeting starts.

A good solution is to conduct the meeting without distractions. At first, this will cause some embarrassment and confusion, but then it will significantly increase the concentration and involvement of participants in solving problems.

5. Change the format of the event

You can conduct a planning meeting by phone or Skype to diversify the usual rhythm, when everyone is used to sitting in a meeting room.

Expert opinion

Can a planning meeting with cigars, hookah and whiskey be effective?

Nikolay Novoselov,

director of ArtNauka company, Moscow

Based on personal experience, I can say that an increase in the number of planning meetings has a negative impact on the productivity of the company. We tried to hold an “office quiet day” and were convinced that this approach gives best result than the planning meeting itself. Unfortunately, this method is not completely suitable for us; we cannot spend a day without meetings every week, since we work in the event area.

Employees would enjoy participating in planning meetings more if they held meetings with a cigar and drinking whiskey. In such an almost informal atmosphere, colleagues can tell much more and honestly express their opinions. I was not afraid that familiarity would appear in the team if such planning meetings were held. Relations between employees have not changed, people simply began to feel more relaxed, express their opinions about the situation and give practical advice.

How to conduct planning meetings using the experience of successful companies

Conducting meetings with the team competently does not always mean organizing planning meetings of the usual format, when everyone gathers and sits in chairs. In modern companies in which people quickly take root non-standard methods, they are increasingly trying to hold meetings standing. Meetings “on your feet” help you get rid of empty, drawn-out conversations and hear only the most important information.

Atomic Object, a software development company, has long decided to hold meetings on its feet. Thanks to this creative format, management achieves maximum results: the absence of unnecessary discussions, clearly posed questions and correct answers. Practice shows that meetings held standing up take no more than 7 minutes - the team plans the day, listens to instructions and immediately begins to work. If you conduct planning meetings of this type, employees will not have the opportunity to relax, and they will have to act and speak more actively.

The Wall Street Journal reports that even during World War I it was customary to hold short planning meetings, since slowness was unacceptable. Later, this format moved into business, in which there was a need to speed up interaction and exchange of information.

The benefits of the new meeting format have been scientifically proven. Researcher Alain Bluedorn from the University of Missouri found that holding a meeting while standing means taking less time from employees, but achieving, if not better, then absolutely similar results compared to regular meetings.

According to the survey results VersionOne, conducted in 2011, about 80% of the 6,000 employees surveyed confirmed that it was customary for their companies to hold short planning meetings every day.

In addition to planning meetings “on legs,” Western companies have come up with other innovations for more efficient work.

For example, in the company Facebook decided to hold short planning meetings 15 minutes before the break, thereby initially setting the duration of the meeting. Employees claim that this method brings good results: people speak briefly and only on the topic.

If it is necessary to combat discipline in the company, to reduce the number of delays, it is necessary to hold short meetings. It is better not to invite latecomers to the discussion, since, not knowing some of the information, they will interfere with the meeting and delay time by asking unnecessary questions.

In company AdobeSystems We decided to hold planning meetings and at the same time deal with delays. They even provided for penalties for those who arrive at the wrong time. The time lost due to the fault of latecomers was equated to the time that could have been spent on developing programs. So the penalty for each delay is $1.

Company Steelcase invented own peculiarity– the signal for the start of the meeting is Elvis Presley’s composition “A Little Less Conversation” or “Less Chat.”

If the organization’s employees do not have time to hold not only a regular meeting, but also a short one, you can hold a meeting using communication tools. In such cases, you can choose to communicate via chat or by e-mail company to convey basic necessary information to colleagues. At the same time, holding meetings “on your feet” is still more effective than any other planning meetings.

Information about the experts

Hasmik Gevorgyan, general director and co-owner of the Provokatsiya chain of stores, Moscow. Provocation-Production LLC. Field of activity: production and sale of clothing and accessories with provocative prints. Territory: head office – in Moscow; production - in Tver; retail outlets and shops - in more than 100 cities of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Number of personnel: 55 (in the parent company).

Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-founder of Mail.Ru Group, Moscow. Dmitry Grishin has headed the board of directors since March 2012. In 2005, he became one of the co-founders of Mail.Ru Group, where from November 2010 to October 2016 he served as CEO of the company (Russia). Dmitry has been working at Mail.Ru since 2000; in 2001 he was appointed technical director of the company, from 2003 to 2010 he served as general director. Graduated from the Faculty of Robotics and Integrated Automation of the Moscow State University technical university them. N. E. Bauman. In 2012, he founded GrishinRobotics, a venture capital firm to invest in consumer robotics around the world.

Vladimir Kiselev, General Director, Partner of JSC "SHERP Company", Moscow. Vladimir Kiselev – General Director and senior partner of the consulting “SHERP Company” since 2000. He has been working in the field of personnel management since 1996, and since 1998 he has headed the personnel management service of a large diversified holding. CJSC "SHERP Company" has existed since 2000, engaged in the formation of highly effective management teams and the development of clients' businesses, using innovative proprietary technology.

Nikolay Novoselov, director of ArtNauka company, Moscow. IP Novoselova T.A. (ArtNauka). Scope of activity: holding shows, team building and presentations based on scientific experiments. Territory: head office in Moscow, eight representative offices in Russia. Number of staff: 10. Number of shows per year: 340.

Today I want to talk about a specific management tool. This article is a response to a letter from a friend from Kazakhstan.

"Hello! I need help in the form of advice. I was at a meeting with one district akim (governor in your opinion). He has a problem. There are 2 thieves' deputies who do not work (and do not want to work and there is no sense in them, slackers, they sit for the sake of status) and you can’t fire them either, because they are protecting the top. And they don’t want anyone to do their work. Thus, my akim is in a trap. Because he has to take out the district and needs to do the work. I would like to know how to solve this problem. Thanks in advance..."

I think this problem is faced not only in Kazakhstan, and not only in government institutions. Sometimes such a friend will sit in a company, everything seems to be fine with him, but there are no results. And there seems to be nothing to complain about, and there’s nothing to fire him for. What to do in this case?

I suggest a simple way - a weekly planning meeting

The planning meeting should not be long

Maximum - 30-40 minutes.

A journal is kept at the planning meeting

This log records everything that managers intend to achieve during the week.

The planning meeting begins with the reading of the company's Goal.

This means the Big Goal. For example: “A prosperous Russia making a worthy contribution to world civilization.” After this, the current goal is read out, for example: “Increase income 5 times this year.”

After this, the leader of the planning meeting asks the heads of departments to talk in turn about what they did last week to achieve the goal.

At the same time, the main function of the meeting leader is to ensure that the speaker does not “spill water” and does not allow phrases like “we have increased the efficiency of the sales department by 15%.” In this case, he simply asks politely what specific steps were taken and what the result was.

The answer, for example, could be:

We conducted training for sellers. sent more than 500 letters to our potential clients. In total, 118 calls were received from interested clients and 53 invoices were issued for a total amount of 3 million 600 thousand. Total income for the department amounted to 1.8 million rubles this week. which is 15% more than last week.

This answer is acceptable. The leader of the planning meeting can initiate short applause from other leaders.

If a leader is trying to “pour water” or “cast shadows on the fence,” the leader’s task is to ensure that other leaders see this. For example, the following phrase would be suitable: “It’s been a difficult week. We’ve been thinking a lot...”

If such attempts continue, the leader of the planning meeting interrupts the speaker and says that this is the planning meeting and if there are no concrete results, then we move on to the next section. Or he may ask the secretary to read out the notes from the last planning meeting, and what exactly was planned to be achieved this week in this department.

For example:

1. Conduct a survey about a new product with 400 customers. Made? No.
2. Issue invoices for a total amount of 2 million 800 thousand rubles. Made? Exhibited for 17 thousand rubles. Conduct training for sellers. Made? No, we were overloaded.
3. I see, that's enough. Let's move on to the next one.

I would like to note that at such a planning meeting it is revealed and made visible to all other managers who achieves results and really helps the company move towards the goal, and who skillfully pretends to be a flexible hose and imitates useful activities.

After everyone has shared the results, a goal for the next week is set for the entire company, and the facilitator gets the participants to agree on this goal.

The facilitator asks the leaders to take turns saying what they are going to do to achieve this goal in their areas, and this is written down in a journal.

Managers can ask other managers to do something extra if their departments are related and they need joint action. An agreement is reached on this and recorded in the journal.

After all this, the leader of the planning meeting asks if they are ready to truly achieve the goal this week, and announces START!

This one is simple and effective form holding a planning meeting allows you to achieve interesting results. Managers either begin to truly produce and achieve results, or run away from the company under various pretexts, making way for new managers who really want to contribute to the team, and not just pretend to be useful, being in the rays of fame and honor, receiving no earning.

Well, and most importantly, this form allows even very productive leaders to achieve even more, which is what I frankly wish for you.

ARTICLES on the same TOPIC

	Open events
Wed, March 27, 2019 - 09:30

Today our colleague from SalesUPConsult, Dmitry Cherednik, will tell you how to bring planning meetings to new level. All advice is based on personal experience company management. The purpose of this article is to create an effective management system from meetings, and not a time sink.

On our projects for the Construction of Management and Development of Sales Departments, we introduce 3 main types of meetings

Daily (planning meetings)
Weekly (Mondays)
Monthly (first Wednesday of the month)

So, fellow managers and company owners.

Conducting planning meetings - main daily tasks:

1. Summing up the results of the previous day;

2. Development of specific actions according to PDCA to “align” the fact/plan;

3. Planning the main tasks for today;

4. Motivation and energy boost for the day.

1. After the meeting, go straight into battle! Therefore, we’ll have a tea, coffee and smoke break before the meeting;

2. Everyone participating in the meeting comes to work 10-15-20 minutes before the start of the meeting for preparation and exercise described in paragraph 1.

The daily meeting should last no more than 30 minutes. It should be informative and move at a good pace. During the meeting, employees must:
Discuss the results of work for the previous day (indicators - intermediate + final), work with reporting activity, sales funnel (section of employees, sales channels).

Set plans for the current day.
Make decisions on operational issues.
Breaking company news.

4 Daily Meeting Rules

1. Frequency. Every day.

Only this way and no other way. By holding meetings with this frequency, you begin to form a completely clear system in the department. Planning and Reporting.

Your employees should be ready to embark on a productive workday with a clear sense of urgency. A properly conducted Planning Meeting is an excellent tool for this.

2. Regulations.

Regulations are one of the elements that help increase efficiency in everything.

A planning meeting is something for which regulations are absolutely necessary.

In this case, the regulations describe and provide for 2 main inputs:

content - issues that are discussed are fixed in the regulations by topics and order (so that you, as a manager, are not led astray by unnecessary discussions and reasoning)
timing – each issue is discussed for a certain time with everyone. If someone needs more time, then do it personally after the planning meeting, when everyone else is already “selling.”

Employees will always be ready for the planning meeting, as described in the regulations.

They clearly know what issues will be discussed. Over time, they will even know the questions that the manager will ask them and will proactively have answers to them).

The effectiveness of meetings rises very high.

Business performance is colossal.

3. Tempo, aka rhythm.

Everyone runs with the same rhythm.

Sometimes we conduct experiments on projects and play dynamic music. The results are interesting. People speak faster and structure their thoughts. The only negative….sometimes they start singing along…. We are now looking for rhythmic music without words. We will hold 10-15 meetings with and without music, measure the results and share them with you.

The pace of the meeting is important. Dynamics and structure are important. Especially at the beginning and end of the meeting. At the beginning it adjusts to the pace of the meeting itself, and at the end to the working pace.

You, as a leader, set this pace. And you support him. As soon as you realize that the dynamics are being lost, you engage with questions, make speeches, and adjust the tempo.

At some point, your employees will get used to the fact that you have live talk at meetings.

4. Figures, Plans and Reports.

All indicators are pronounced in relation to numbers. This also applies to plans and reports. “We held slightly fewer meetings than planned”, “Receivables are a little more than we expected”, “We were unable to carry out all the planned negotiations”...

Do you still drink this kind of nonsense with your morning coffee? Finish up.

Stop drinking coffee at planning meetings. You have 30 minutes to effective work, which determines the result, and not on stirring sugar, drinking coffee and trying to wake up in a meeting.

Allowing someone to be incompetent at work.

Alexander Friedman once gave an excellent definition of a result in Russian - it is the absence of a result and a beautiful story about why it didn’t work out

For the main tasks planned for completion on the previous day - report - completed / not completed. Failed - system error or not. In this case, completed is considered the same as setting the task - SMART.