Reset the chaos

Bring that thought to the next meeting……..

Recently, I spent an evening at a retreat for a local, small company. The team gathered from various parts of the US for a few days with the goal of reflecting and reenergizing. They read and discussed a book. They talked about life and their families. They naturally left unified, with a common mission.

The CEO told me that the stated goal of the meeting was to have nothing added to your “to-do” list when you left. Refreshing goal.

In a typical business on a typical day, rarely does a meeting happen without a laundry list of “to-do’s” sprinkled to everyone in the room. People walk into the meeting overwhelmed with everything that is naturally on their plates, and the meeting serves as a place to add more. The person’s list ends up full of tasks that take one’s eye off the ball, the one critical thing that needs to be done uniquely by that individual for the company to succeed.

In a typical business on a typical day, rarely does a meeting happen without a need for several different meetings to discuss what was brought up in the original meeting. Attendees grow. In fact, if you aren’t invited, you feel left out, and, if your calendar isn’t full of meetings, you feel guilty.  It is said that a 30-minute meeting really takes at least 1 hour when you include logistics and mental preparation.

All of this activity creates a lack of focus on the main thing that needs to happen, the number one task at hand.

What if a leader’s role was to prioritize, simplify, remove “to-do’s,” reduce meetings, help people spend time where they need to spend time?

A friend suggested recently to open a meeting (but that takes a meeting) with asking, “what is the 1 thing you need to do this week to make it a successful week?” This opening is used to recenter everyone on their individual major task at hand.

The thoughts above are certainly not revolutionary and many external meetings can’t be controlled, but it always seems that we need a reminder to reset the chaos that has a tendency to take over.

It takes a leader to step up, make the first domino fall.

Scripture, John 14:27

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