Meetings are mostly status updates
Move status out of meetings and use the time for decisions.
01 · What is usually happening?
The morning meeting goes round the table, each person saying what they did and what is pending. Half the room is waiting for their turn. By the end, the time for decisions is gone.
Everyone leaves tired, and the same updates are asked for again in the afternoon.
The question people usually ask“Why are our meetings so long?”
The more useful question“Which updates could be read beforehand, and which decisions truly need people in a room?”
02 · Common causes
- 01Status is shared by speaking, not by reading
- 02No agenda of decisions
- 03The same updates are repeated to different people
- 04Nobody prepares the numbers
- 05The meeting is where information first appears
- 06Actions from the last meeting are not tracked
03 · What to check now0 of 6 checked
04 · What good looks like
- 01Status is read beforehand, from one page.
- 02The meeting handles exceptions and decisions.
- 03It starts and ends on time.
- 04Actions have an owner and a date.
- 05Open actions are reviewed first.
05 · Where this connects
This rarely stays in one department
What it can lead to: People's best hours go to updates instead of decisions.
Start from a problem
Work flows left to right, top to bottomKEYMost important for manufacturing
These support every part of the business
Problem
Meetings are mostly status updates
Usually connected to
How it spreads
- Management
What it can lead to: People's best hours go to updates instead of decisions.
lamplamp could prepare the status page before the meeting.
06 · Related processesProduction plan to output
07 · Useful toolsChecklistDaily Production Review
08 · lamp
lamp could keep this moving
lamp is not available yet. These are things it is being built to do.
- lamp could prepare the status page before the meeting.
- lamp could list only the exceptions and decisions for discussion.
- lamp could record actions and owners from the meeting.
- lamp could remind owners before each action is due.
Does your business handle this differently?Tell us what we have missed: a cause, a check, or a better way of handling it.
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