A Strategic Culture Requires Great Meeting Practices

I’m convinced that a non-trivial part of creating a strategic culture where speed, agility, and focus are prized comes down to something pretty boring: having great meeting practices.

Great meeting practices are a reflection of a culture in which people aren’t just doing things to do them. Instead, they’re operating with purpose.

When people pause at the start of a meeting to ask, What are we here to accomplish?, there’s an implicit belief that some activities are a better use of time than others.

That’s a strategic mindset. 

It also sets up follow-up questions that are explicitly strategic. Questions like:

• Why is this important? 

• How does this fit? 

• Is there a better way to achieve that goal? 

Similarly, when groups stop their meetings early to crystallize the next steps, they’re actualizing a belief that real-life forward motion should come from meetings. 

• What have we learned? 

• What decisions have we made?

• What are we going to do next?

Of course, instituting great meeting practices won’t instantly turn a culture into a strategic one, but they can make it painfully obvious where people are going through the motions—i.e., meeting just to meet. And it can reveal where they are spending time counter to what the strategy is. 

Our strategy calls for us to do X, Y, and Z, but I don’t see these on the agenda. Can you help me understand the disconnect?

It’s interventions like those that help strategic leaders create team cultures that are also strategic.   

Leadership Wisdom

“The absolute truth is that if you don’t know what you want, you won’t get it. So before calling a meeting, ask yourself: What am I trying to accomplish? Then ask, is a meeting necessary? Or desirable? Or justifiable? Don’t call a meeting if all the answers aren’t yes.”

— former Intel CEO Andy Grove, in High Output Management