Healthy organizations are places where you find high levels of communication, consistency, and trust. Open communication. Consistent focus and action. Trust is high.

If you expect to facilitate communication and maintain focus, you must bring your team together on a consistent basis. People don’t dislike meetings. They dislike you wasting their time.

Bring humans together in a productive manner and see what happens.

Meetings are a place where you make decisions. They should be place where candor wins the day. A place where the team feels free to speak and ask hard questions. Great meetings end with the team feeling energized.

Great Meetings Have...

Drama: There is conflict. Candor. Honesty. Real discussions. Real decisions.

Structure: Why are we here? Let us know before the meeting. No wandering. No grandstanding. Focused thought. Disciplined action.

The Right People: To make decisions. To ask hard questions. To get done what needs to get done. And keeping people away that don't need to be there is equally important.

Followup: There is a clear who, what, and when to keep everyone focused after the meeting.

10 Meeting Rules:

• Start on time. End on time
• Take notes. It keeps you focused.
• Be respectful. Be polite. Focus.
• Say it once. No grandstanding.
• Ask hard questions. Find the real issue.
• Attack problems, not people.
• Listen. Seek to understand. Have empathy.
• Be candid. Be honest.
• Participate.
• No silent voting. Agree on who, what, and by when.

10 Commandments of Problem Solving by Gino Wickman

1. Thou Shalt Not Rule by Consensus – you can’t always get everyone on the same page. Decide, deal with it, and move on.
2. Thou Shalt Not Be a Weenie – the solution is easy to discuss, but always more difficult to implement. You must have strong will and resolve to see it through.
3. Thou Shalt Be Decisive – it’s less important what you decide than it is that you decide – so decide!
4. Thou Shalt Not Rely on Secondhand Information – when dealing with multiple sources of secondhand information, get everyone together, discuss it and solve it.
5. Thou Shalt Fight for the Greater Good – put egos, titles and past beliefs aside and focus on the vision of the greater good, the big picture.
6. Thou Shalt Not Try to Solve Them All – prioritize issues and take them one at a time. Deal with the most pressing and important first, and then move on.
7. Thou Shalt Live with it, End it, or Change it – those are the only three possible options and outcomes you have in solving an issue.
8. Thou Shalt Choose Short-Term Pain and Suffering – if something is a problem for longer than 36 hours it’s your own fault. Solve it now rather than later.
9. Thou Shalt Enter the Danger – deal first with the issue you fear most.
10. Thou Shalt Take a Shot – suggest something, try something, do something, even it is wrong.