“Process is not a dirty word.” 

• Provide a consistent process for topics, updates and addressing issues.
• Create a consistent mechanism for communication.
• Remove ad hoc conversations about topics that distract you during the day.
• Provide a forum for negotiating and solving challenges, especially when a trend develops.
• Provide a forum for new issues and dialogue about where the company is headed.

These might include:

• Weekly Management Meeting
• Weekly Department Meetings. Department meetings are used for marketing, sales, product, technology, product and other major departments. If your business is not mature enough to need all of these department check-ins, combine meetings and handle multiple departments at once.
• Weekly Initiative Meetings. In addition to department meetings, there may be other areas that come up frequently and deserve a regular meeting that fall outside a department or that involve multiple departments.

I know what you are saying, “Who has the time for all of these meetings?” I said the same thing. Try this: for a week, calculate the amount of time and correspondence you have for a particular issue or decision your company must address. Given the haphazard way that most early stage companies communicate, there is a very good chance you are spending more time in ad hoc discussion than an hour long meeting. You are also less able to make decisions efficiently when issues are dealt with at random, and without the necessary personnel in attendance.