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LISTEN FIRST, SPEAK LAST

Ask “What needs to be done?”

  • NOT “What do I want to do?”. Not asking it almost always gurantees wrong decision
  • Focus on ONLY one urgent task at a time
    • After it is done, re-eval priorities instead of the moving on to the second most urgent

Develop action plans

  • Action plan states intention but not commitment. Even if it is written, should expect to revisit and revise often
  • Organizations are time-wasters in nature
  • Most likely you don’t stick with the original plan, but without planning, you become a prisoner of events. Also need regular check-in to figure out which ones truly matter

Responsible for decision

  • A decision must have all stakeholders and their precision roles in the decision
    • Also a deadline must be included
  • Hiring/promoting is often the most difficult decision. Expect 1/3 success rate, and revisit people decision after 6 months.
    • Even if it is a failure, it is the exec’s mistake, not the failed person, BUT this person has to be removed - offer them to go back to the original level
  • On weak areas, delegate

Focus on oppurtunities than problems

  • How can we exploit this change for the company?
  • List and deal with oppurtunities first, problems next
  • Put best people on oppurtunities than problems.

Run productive meetings

  • Make sure all participants agree on why the meeting is happening
  • Don’t sign up for committee meetings
  • Don’t brainstorm together. Brainstorm offline, and use meeting to review and eval the ideas. People should feel free to criticize DURING the meeting
  • MAKE SURE decide what kind of meeting it will be, each needs different preparation and results
    • Preparing statement or announcement: one member comes up with draft before the meeting. At the end of the meeting, a pre-pointed member will distribute the final text
    • Annoucement,e.g., org changes: annoucemnet and discussion about it only
    • One member reports: nothing but the report should be discussed
    • A few member reports: No discussion, or questions for clarification only, or discussion where all participants ask questions. In this case, distribute report before the meeting, and timebox it (e.g., 15 mins)
    • Inform the exec: Exec should listen and ask questions, he should sum up but not making the presentaion
    • Meeting just to be in exec’s presence: lunch/dinner format ONLY
  • Designate someone to take notes in the meeting.
  • Sloan’s meeting method
    • Annouce the purpose
    • Listen and only clarify points
    • Sum up what to be included in the memo at the end of each disscussion point or end of meeting
    • Immediately followed by an after-meeting memo, which summarized discussions, conclusions, and action items/assignments/deadline. This memo is cced to every participants
  • Too many meetings means the responsibility is too decentralized. In a lean org, people should be able to move around without collsion and explaining their work all the time. Otherwise, the org is overstaffed