Two qualities characterise high-functioning leadership teams: (1) hard conversations happen — difficult issues move quickly from people’s heads to the conference table; (2) accountability is shared — individuals on the top team feel a responsibility to the organisation as a whole, not just for their piece of the action.
To take senior teams to a new level of leadership, we have put together a model of top team communication that we call The Morning Meeting, or TMM. It’s a deceptively simple name for an intricately ritualised event that has delivered significant payoffs to the organizations that have put it into practice.
Here’s how TMM in its purest form works: Every day, at the same time, the top team — numbering between six and 15 people, both staff and line — assembles around a conference table, either in person or virtually. Also at the table are one or two others who either are responsible for an important current initiative or are valued for their area of expertise. There’s no preset agenda.
Around the conference table on folding chairs, in a sort of gallery, are a handful of deputies and executive assistants to the principals at the table.
Sometimes the CEO will have an issue or two to begin the meeting. More often the CEO defers to the No. 2 person seated on his left, who runs the meeting. When No. 2’s issues are fully discussed, the person to the left raises any issues, and so on, clockwise around the table, full circle to the CEO. Once everyone at the table has had an opportunity to speak, everyone in the gallery leaves and the top team gets a chance to go around again. In this second phase, executives discuss highly sensitive issues, such as legal and personnel matters.Depending on the size of the group and the number of issues, the meeting can take 15 minutes or two hours.
The ground rules:
Anyone can put anything on the table for discussion; it doesn’t have to be related to one’s own area of responsibility.These are decision meetings, but issues do not just get raised and resolved. Implementation plans are broadly outlined and agreed upon, and internal and ext-ernal communication strategies are often considered.
Once an issue is fully vetted, the CEO determines the decision rule that will govern it. He decides whether he’ll be the one to make the final call, whether a particular individual or subgroup will make it or whether it will be made by group consensus. Changing one’s mind, even in the middle of the conversation, is OK, even respected. Not having an opinion is not. There are no arguments about fact questions. Participants are to get the facts and raise the subject at the next meeting.
When we try to introduce TMM into an organisation, there is often resistance: "We can’t do that here." Our experience, however, is that the resistance is often a mask for anxiety about leaving a familiar mode of operating.
To take senior teams to a new level of leadership, we have put together a model of top team communication that we call The Morning Meeting, or TMM. It’s a deceptively simple name for an intricately ritualised event that has delivered significant payoffs to the organizations that have put it into practice.
Here’s how TMM in its purest form works: Every day, at the same time, the top team — numbering between six and 15 people, both staff and line — assembles around a conference table, either in person or virtually. Also at the table are one or two others who either are responsible for an important current initiative or are valued for their area of expertise. There’s no preset agenda.
Around the conference table on folding chairs, in a sort of gallery, are a handful of deputies and executive assistants to the principals at the table.
Sometimes the CEO will have an issue or two to begin the meeting. More often the CEO defers to the No. 2 person seated on his left, who runs the meeting. When No. 2’s issues are fully discussed, the person to the left raises any issues, and so on, clockwise around the table, full circle to the CEO. Once everyone at the table has had an opportunity to speak, everyone in the gallery leaves and the top team gets a chance to go around again. In this second phase, executives discuss highly sensitive issues, such as legal and personnel matters.Depending on the size of the group and the number of issues, the meeting can take 15 minutes or two hours.
The ground rules:
Anyone can put anything on the table for discussion; it doesn’t have to be related to one’s own area of responsibility.These are decision meetings, but issues do not just get raised and resolved. Implementation plans are broadly outlined and agreed upon, and internal and ext-ernal communication strategies are often considered.
Once an issue is fully vetted, the CEO determines the decision rule that will govern it. He decides whether he’ll be the one to make the final call, whether a particular individual or subgroup will make it or whether it will be made by group consensus. Changing one’s mind, even in the middle of the conversation, is OK, even respected. Not having an opinion is not. There are no arguments about fact questions. Participants are to get the facts and raise the subject at the next meeting.
When we try to introduce TMM into an organisation, there is often resistance: "We can’t do that here." Our experience, however, is that the resistance is often a mask for anxiety about leaving a familiar mode of operating.