Regular Meeting Schedule

Organize regular meetings that becomes the process through which you manage the business. These meetings should be held at regular intervals (e.g., weekly) with a set agenda. These meetings have multiple purposes:

1. Weekly Management Meeting
2. Weekly Department Meetings
3. Weekly Initiative Meetings

“Establishing a regular process will reduce wasted time.” 

Process is Key

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.

By having these meetings at regular intervals, you ensure that issues are addressed without harmful lag time. Tinker with the length and frequency to suit your business. As your process implementation improves, you may find that you can decrease the frequency. Similarly, you may find that some departments or topic areas require an additional weekly meeting. You can further increase your efficiency by combining meetings for different departments or topics if the inclusion is appropriate. Your goal is to keep at least 80 percent of your communication within the organized process of established meetings, and not allow the black hole of spontaneous emails and impromptu conversations swallow your time.