Quarterly & Annual Strategy Meetings

 “There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.”
― Peter F. Drucker

Strategy helps focus your organization on doing the right things, not just doing the same things better. But no matter how great the strategy is that you devised at your yearly planning retreat, it rarely delivers value without a consistent execution framework. That framework is delivered through your organization’s meetings.

We’ve talked before about How to Execute Strategy, so let’s start with what is a great strategy?

In its simplest form, a strategy is just a path from Point A to Point B. Point A is where you are at today and Point B is where you want to be in the future – simple right?

The problem with that illustration is that it ignores all the other players on the field (and some within your organization) conspiring to keep you away from Point B!

We know that Point B needs to be well defined and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Responsible and Time Specific). We also know that there will be obstacles in our way. Some of those obstacles will be known from the outset, many will appear along the way.

Those obstacles that appear along the way are one of the key reasons you have your meeting structure in place. Without daily, weekly and quarterly meetings your team members are likely to get stuck behind some obstacle that will slow them down and reduce the chances of reaching your goal in a timely manner. In each of those meetings your team has the opportunity (and the responsibility) to seek help in getting around the obstacles that are between them and their goals.

We’ve spent a lot of time in past posts and even produced an E-Course on building a great strategy. Please check out those resources if you need help.

After you’ve set your SMART goal, your strategy is how you are going to get there. Your quarterly meetings are your big, 4x per year “mile markers” that let you and your team know if you are on track to accomplishing your Big Hairy Audacious Goal!

But… as great as quarterly strategy reviews are … finding out you are off track 90 days into your year is far too late! That is why you’ve got to break your goal into even smaller steps. You and your team need to know if you are on track each week and even every day.

That is the only way to ensure that you and your team will accomplish the single most important goal that your organization has this year.

That is why you must have meetings that rock (and drive results)!

I hope this series has helped you see how meetings can really make your organization a much better place to work and much more effective!

Let me know how this meeting plan is working for you in the comments below.

Thank you for being a part of our values driven community!

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