Planning meeting in the department: an effective tool or a formality? “Plannerka” as a way to increase the loyalty of company personnel. What are planners for?

The head of the department is a very busy person. Indicators, regulations, solutions to complex problems, organizing everyone and everything to move towards the goal - everything is on his shoulders. The more correctly the set of management tools is selected, the more effective the manager. Is it worth spending time on such a tool as a planning meeting in a linear unit?

Even in companies where planning meetings are mandatory and regulated, managers often approach them formally - just shoot for show and move on with your work. They consider planning meetings a waste of time, which was invented by theorists. Their motto is: “Practitioners need to work, not deliberate.” At the same time, in companies where planning meetings are optional and are a personal initiative, there are managers who, without additional reminders, gather employees at a certain time and talk to them.

Why do these “strange” managers waste their precious time so “ineffectively” if no one obliges them to do so? I've had to look deeply into this issue lately. The crisis required top managers to dive deeper into the business. The rules of the game in the market have changed, and in order for a company not only to stay afloat, but also to use the crisis to strengthen its position in the market, it needs to become closer to customers - external and internal.

To quickly respond to changes and increase the level of control over the situation, I, among other things, began to regularly join planning meetings in departments and compared different styles of conducting them. The figures were indicative: it turned out that of the 12 single-profile departments in which both sales and contract enforcement are carried out, the highest and most stable indicators are those where planning meetings are held weekly. And this is no coincidence.

The purpose of the planning meeting

If a manager, when asked about the purpose of a planning meeting, answers: “Because it’s supposed to,” it’s better not to hold it at all. Any formal events “for show” only work at a disadvantage; they teach you to work not for results, but for the “appearance of moving towards the goal.” The name “planning meeting” suggests that its goal is to update the movement according to the planned plan towards the set goals.

If we consider this event from the point of view of the Deming cycle (Plan – Do – Check – Akt), then the planning meeting is a regular monitoring (Check) of activities in order to draw conclusions and, if necessary, adjust the movement (Akt). But there are statistics for this! Is it worth gathering additional people? It’s definitely worth it, and the main functions of the planning meeting help us make sure of this.

Main functions of the planning meeting

1) Informational. Employees have few ways to obtain information about the situation in the company and on the market:

• official published information that is sometimes missed or not fully understood;
• gossip, often very far from the truth, but discussed with great pleasure in dining rooms and smoking rooms;
• first-hand information, with explanations and emphasis on important points, which is given by the manager at the planning meeting, paying due attention to working out objections and reducing the effectiveness of word of mouth.

And it is mandatory to inform employees about the department’s progress along the intended path.

2) Control. In addition to dry and categorical numbers, it is possible to monitor the atmosphere in the team and clarify the reasons for success or decline in performance. Based on the results of the planning meeting, failures in the chain of interaction within the department and in the company are often identified, and the manager immediately begins to take action to eliminate them.

3) Motivational. Employees need attention. Let us recall the famous Hawthorne effect in management - labor productivity increases due to the fact that attention is paid to the activities of employees. A planning meeting is one of the best ways to regularly remind employees that they are important and their work is given enough attention.

One of the employees in the department had a breakthrough, a takeoff - a good reason to recognize achievements and, if necessary, support the competitive spirit in the department. And besides the numbers, you need to see the eyes of your employees. The manager should carefully look and listen to his employees. The employee’s behavior has changed, the passion has disappeared - a reason for the manager to include an individual conversation in the weekly plan.

4) Educational. In this function, the planning meeting is an indispensable tool for simplifying the difficult managerial work of a manager. During the week, a work case that was indicative of everyone happened - the manager writes it down and makes it public knowledge at the planning meeting. Thus, the annoying need to repeat the same thing to different people many times is a thing of the past, and we regularly and consciously “sharpen” our working tools.

5) Organizational. A good practice is to invite representatives of related departments to planning meetings, especially at times of innovation. An opportunity to establish or adjust interaction, resolve conflicts, and exchange experiences.

6) Disciplining. U motivation, as a management tool, there is one very significant drawback: its effect is short-lived. Few people are capable of self-motivation, and it is people with this ability who most often become leaders.

Discipline, regular rituals and rules, including planning meetings, are designed to help motivate employees. A planning meeting is an event. Employees are getting used to the fact that they will need not only reporting in numbers, but also a willingness to justify their indicators. Questions are prepared for the planning meeting, employees collect and submit to the manager cases that they think should be shown to the entire department. Like a family dinner on Fridays, the planning meeting becomes a habitual disciplinary action according to the rules, when everyone must put aside their business, be sure to be present at the workplace, and finally turn to each other. This is especially important.

How often to hold planning meetings

I believe that daily unit meetings are only suitable for newcomers who need a mentoring style of management and support every step of the way. For an established team, planning meetings should be weekly. The main thing is that they are carried out on the same day, at the same time, and approximately coincide in duration and order of actions, which will preserve the disciplinary function.

An example of a possible planning meeting scenario:

• The manager makes an informational message; based on the results, employees can ask clarifying questions.
• The manager announces the planned indicators and asks employees questions about them. If necessary, schedules individual meetings.
• The manager talks about a case study of the week or introduces an invited employee.
• The manager clarifies whether there are urgent work issues that are important for the entire department and require discussion at the planning meeting. Evaluates issues, makes decisions - what to discuss immediately, what will require a delayed decision.
• The manager talks about plans for the current week - significant events, meetings and concludes the planning meeting.

Time costs

We take a long time and waste time - this is the main reason why managers refuse to hold planning meetings. It leads to a complete abandonment of this tool, or everything comes down to a short monologue by the manager without feedback from subordinates. Only informational and slightly disciplinary functions are retained.

This is actually a problem: managing “personally” is easier than working with a group. Managing group dynamics is the art of a good leader. His goal is to conduct a short and clear planning meeting, and at the same time receive feedback from employees, which will help correct the movement if necessary. The optimal duration is up to 20-45 minutes. It is this time that has been ingrained in us since childhood as a period of concentration.

The power of a leader is that he sets the rules. To ensure that the planning meeting does not drag on, you need to enter into a “planning meeting contract” with your employees. For example:

• We discuss only general issues; we discuss specific issues for individual solutions.
• Let's keep it short and to the point.
• We don’t get distracted by work issues; we set our phones to vibrate mode.
• By stating a problem, we offer a solution.
• We discuss non-work issues during non-working hours.

The set of rules may vary depending on the situation. The main thing is that the manager manages the regulations and does not delve into the problems himself. The purpose of the planning meeting is to identify, and the decision can be made later, carefully weighing and studying all the details while the department is working. The main thing is to show employees that the reported problems are being resolved. Sometimes situations arise in which the planning meeting goes beyond the allotted time, and tension in the team is clearly visible. Then you need to arrange an additional meeting, often after hours. This is the skill of a manager - to prevent the situation from escalating, to identify markers that show negative aspects in the team.

Of course, it will take time to implement the planning meeting tool in the department. Sometimes you have to carry out more than one event before the tool becomes truly effective. When a manager becomes open to feedback, he will be surprised to hear many unspoken things that employees have long wanted to say, but never had the chance. And then I asked! You have to think through the roles of your subordinates and their use in group dynamics, work with objections, and argue at the highest level. Many managers do not go through this particular path of formation, and go into individual management, which is much more labor-intensive and less effective, when there are only two steps left to success.

Managers who are fluent in this tool use it in their departments with great success, because they were able to evaluate its effectiveness. The planning meeting is not a relic of the past and not a formality, but one of the most modern and effective tools that helps in solving the most difficult task in management - achieving the goals of the unit. But it is these goals that make up the success of the entire company.

We recommend reading it to everyone who has to organize planning meetings, five-minute meetings and other meetings. Many people do them, but few do it well. The article describes the stages of preparing a meeting, its structure, evaluating effectiveness and recording results - everything you need to know to hold a truly useful meeting.

Author about himself

Evgenia Koryakovtseva. Consultant, independent business coach. She has worked with the retail format for more than ten years, with experience as an external consultant in a consulting agency and an internal trainer in retail chains, and managed the B2B sales department.

Experience in conducting seminars, trainings, lectures (more than 400 projects). Knowledge of modern methods of management, training and evaluation of personnel in retail; formation of comprehensive projects in these areas. Experience in describing business processes, building training systems, developing personnel motivation systems and project management.

We all participate in meetings. And someone even has to cook and conduct them. Or planning meetings. Or group discussions. Admit it, many of us really don’t like such “talking” things.

Why? Because the mindset has been ingrained into the blood of any of our people: a meeting is when they talk for a long time, formally and tediously, not on the point, and after that, nothing is done anyway. Well, isn't it a waste of time?

This wonderful format of work

Meetings in companies are often scheduled unexpectedly and are held sporadically. In addition, they are not properly prepared, and the leaders do not know how to organize a discussion. Therefore, many participants perceive the information incorrectly (didn’t hear, didn’t understand, forgot) - the necessary decisions are not made (postponed and hang up), and even if they are approved, they are often not implemented. Right?

I feel bad for this wonderful format of work. That is why in today’s article we will discuss what is good about it, what makes group discussion indispensable, and learn how to conduct it effectively.

To begin with, why do we need all this? Why bring together a lot of busy people and take them away from work?

A high-quality meeting allows you to use key mechanisms that increase labor productivity, about which more...

The principle of synergy. The effect of synergy has long been known to psychologists. Remember? — The effectiveness of the whole is higher than the total effectiveness of its individual parts. Or even simpler: one head is good, but two are better. And it is true. It is together that we are able to generate more ideas, find many solutions to the problem and choose the optimal one from this variety. In group discussion mode, people begin to work as a single whole, complementing each other. Efficiency also increases - check. That is why, if you need to resolve a number of work issues, then quality discussion, this huge resource, should not be neglected.

The principle of cohesion. A team, that is, people who have the same vision of the goal, trust each other and know how to work together, is more effective than one person. Do you agree? How will your employees become a team? Suddenly? By yourself? Maybe immediately highly effective? And due to what? The key to forming a team is moving towards a goal together, proactively and in an organized manner. And all these conditions live in the meeting mode. Meetings and planning sessions are a powerful tool for unity, building respect for colleagues and managers, and an excellent teaching tool. Therefore, if it is important for you that your employees work harmoniously and not just belong to one department or company, conduct weekly planning meetings with high quality.

The principle of clarity. Many people are afraid of the unknown. A normal person - voluntarily or involuntarily, consciously or not - resists the incomprehensible and unfamiliar, and this is absolutely natural. What if the company’s goals, performance indicators, tasks for the next month, etc. suddenly fall into the category of incomprehensible? How does a person feel when they ask him to dig a hole, but they don’t tell him why, how deep and where? Of course resistance and demotivation.

Meetings are a platform for explaining the “party course”, increasing its understandability, its acceptance by employees, and, therefore, a tool for reducing their resistance to the unknown. Therefore, if you are introducing changes, carry them through a series of planning sessions and meetings.

An experienced leader knows that meetings create organization. With their help, you can maintain connections within the company and implement decisions made, check how employees see goals, and break down barriers between departments. If you don't hold meetings, then rumors and speculation arise in your organization. This is a problem that leads to disunity and uncertainty among employees about the future, and it’s not far from losing control.

Well-run meetings can work wonders. The key word here is good. What needs to be taken into account when holding meetings?

Principles for Effective Meetings

Compliance with objectives

There are several meeting formats: meeting, brainstorming; planning meeting, five minutes. Each format has indications for use and methodology. When deciding to gather people, soberly assess your goals and objectives. What do you want to get from this format? People need to find a solution? Then this is a brainstorming session - you are all on an equal footing and accept any ideas for consideration. Do you want to set tasks? Then this is a planning meeting with minutes and agenda... The format is determined by key points: the role of the leader of the meeting, the style of communication at the meeting, the result of the meeting.

Example formats:

Meeting. The goal is to generate ideas, evaluate options, and find solutions. That is, the team works in creative mode. The apotheosis of this format is brainstorming. A prerequisite is the opportunity to voice an idea/opinion, that is, a culture of free communication at the meeting. People should feel free to express their thoughts and should be encouraged to do so. Therefore, there should be no harsh, unconstructive criticism.

Planner. The goal is to analyze the current state of the process and identify new tasks. This format is closer to oral reporting on given indicators, so the presence of these same indicators is mandatory for it. The planning meeting always proceeds on business, according to the intended agenda.

Five minutes. The goal is to identify priorities and create a working mindset. Five-minute meetings are not held to solve global problems and answer the questions “Who is to blame?” and “What should I do?” This is a reminder format. The key requirements are positivity and short-termism. Remember, morning meetings play the role of a stimulator, activator, and motivator. Their duration is from 5 to 15 minutes - no longer!

Specificity

Are the tasks themselves defined? Before the meeting, clearly write down the agenda and prepare the materials you need. Send out the agenda to all participants in advance (at least three hours before the start, or preferably the day before) so that they can prepare as well. This will allow all of you not to get lost in tasks, stick to the meeting line and meet the allotted time.

Short term

Any meeting should be held in the shortest possible time. Ideal - 30 minutes, maximum - an hour. It’s very bad if you have to squeeze your butt for several hours. Why? A person’s voluntary attention tends to dissipate over time, and specifically within 30-40 minutes. In a monotonous process, what is happening ceases to be perceived after 20-30 minutes. And with a decrease in attention, a person’s memory works much worse... This tells us: after 3 hours of a meeting, people will be very ineffective.

Timing

A prerequisite for an effective meeting is strict timing or regulations. Set a start and end time for the meeting. Start at the designated time, regardless of whether everyone has arrived - this will teach people not to be late. Set a HONEST time deadline (for example, an hour and a half) and 10 minutes before the deadline - finish, regardless of the result. Set a five-minute timer for each speaker, this will teach people to speak to the point. Stop irrelevant conversations at the meeting and bring people back to the topic. Have a clear agenda for the meeting. It should be in front of all participants.

Adequacy of participants

Only those employees who are affected by the agenda should be present at the meeting. NEVER invite people to a meeting with a trailer, just sit. Follow the principle of optimality: there should be fewer participants, but the level of their influence on the issue should be higher.

The right to speak

You know those meetings where employees only speak when asked and give the manager socially desirable answers like “yes, of course we’ll do it”? Why is this happening? Because people are used to getting hit on the head for expressing an opinion, especially for doubting. If a manager asks to evaluate whether a problem can be solved, an employee expresses doubt, and the manager responds by shutting him up - what then do others learn? Be silent and “don’t get angry.” What do we need from them? Intelligence and analysis. Incompatible things, right? Therefore, it is during a meeting, more than any other time, that employees must be given the right to speak, to opinions, ideas, doubts, and questions. Moreover, you need to learn how to answer employee questions: briefly, to the point, while suppressing unnecessary and long groans about the difficult office life.

Consolidation of results

Every meeting, especially one where you set goals, should have a written summary. I recommend keeping electronic minutes of the meeting. For example, in this form:

After the meeting, minutes are sent to all participants. It is the minutes of the meeting that become a control tool, allowing you not to miss anything or forget a single task. And transferring the protocol into an electronic system (for example, 1C or Lotus) makes it possible to integrate it into the task setting system. And most importantly: you should definitely ask about the tasks set at the last meeting. It is the cyclical mode of meetings “analysis → tasks → control → analysis” that allows you to transfer the meeting from idle talk mode to work format.

Planning of the meeting

Everything that can be transferred to planned mode must be transferred. The only way to get used to control procedures is to lay out a planned course for them. Ideally, all employees should know when they will be asked for this or that matter, that is, when they need to report - in order to have time to collect data and prepare a meaningful report. Unscheduled meetings are appropriate only for urgent and important matters, and the proportion of such unannounced meetings should be low. Otherwise, the employee simply does not have time to prepare (which means you will hear “I don’t know”), sometimes he will not even be able to attend (instead of eight, two come, the rest are “in the fields”), he is distracted from the task (and high productivity requires concentration), etc. .d.

To evaluate the effectiveness of your meetings, take this test:

Do you have more than 3 yeses? Let's optimize!

Stages of preparing and holding an effective meeting

Determine the goals and objectives of the meeting. What issues need to be addressed? What information should I track? What conclusions should we draw? What is the best way to structure tasks?

Determine the meeting format based on the objectives. Select participants and meeting time. The meeting MUST have a chairman/facilitator who will monitor the rules. This person should have less responsibility for solving the problem about which the meeting is being held. Then he is less fixated on emotions (than, for example, the initiator of the meeting) and does not lobby, wittingly or unwittingly, for decisions beneficial to the latter. And the right to speak honestly is given to everyone present.

Determine the structure of the meeting. The meeting must have a clear structure and each time take place exactly in the order provided for.

Typical planner structure:

• Opening remarks/warm-up.

  Goals. Regulations. Format.

  General issues.

  General results of the work. Fulfillment of assigned tasks.

  Partial results/reports of participants.

  Analysis of results. Setting goals. Summarizing.

Typical meeting structure:

Identification of the problem, goal. The importance of the topic. Plans.

Goals. Regulations. Format.

Discussion. Analysis.

Analysis of results. Setting goals.

Summarizing.

Typical structure of a brainstorming or discussion:

Opening remarks / objectives of the meeting / regulations.

The problem and why it matters.

Generating ALL solution options.

Discuss the pros and cons of each option.

Selecting a solution option. Based on it, tasks are set for the participants.

Preparation of minutes of the meeting.

Determine the regulations. When developing regulations, remember that they should be convenient for both the leader and the participants. Standard: 3-7 minutes for problem setting presentation; 5-7 minutes for debate. It is useful to provide breaks at the rate of 10-15 minutes for every 45-60 minutes of active work. By and large, meetings longer than an hour run the risk of losing the attention of participants. Such meetings may be ineffective.

Set the order of issues to be solved. Questions regarding the regulations are determined by those key points on which the overall result and quality of the company’s work depends (for example, feedback from clients, reaction to advertising, information on new products, etc.).

Divide all the questions into three groups.

1. Regular questions - according to regulations. Try to deal with regular questions faster. At first, their discussion may take up all the time. Then current issues will be added to them - people themselves will become active. But your priority, which determines the speed of movement forward, is development issues. Allocate up to 50% of the meeting time to them.

   Current issues - according to the meeting plan: ideas that have arisen, problems, what interferes with the work and how to optimize it. In total, you can analyze no more than 5 questions. Always start with the most important things. It’s better to finish with one important question than to leave a dozen not fully resolved.

   Development issues - according to the development plan.

Prepare the necessary documents and forms. To effectively work through issues, it is extremely important to properly prepare material for meetings and send it to everyone in advance. At the meeting itself, it is necessary to keep minutes of the meeting, where all decisions made should be recorded.

Determine the time for the meeting. If employees are not disciplined and are often late, I recommend holding weekly meetings in the morning, right at the beginning of the working day - timely arrival at work is guaranteed. The worst “laters” will be rehabilitated in a few days. Always indicate the end time of the meeting. Try to finish a little earlier - this becomes a pleasant surprise for the participants. In any case, after discussing planned issues, there should still be some time left. Then employees will have the opportunity, reason and incentive to ask their questions - that is, to be active and think. And what could be better for a manager than an active and smart employee!

Make sure the meeting is necessary.

Answer yourself the following questions:

1. Are the questions relevant to the meeting? Is this what we need to talk about today?

   Does the form of presentation of the material correspond to the purpose, audience, content?

   What should happen/remain in the minds of employees after the meeting?

   Is it possible to skip the meeting and achieve the same result?

If you answered “Yes” to questions 1, 2 and “No” to question 4, feel free to hold a meeting!

A planning meeting is a derivative of the English plan, a short working meeting dedicated to the progress of the planned plan. According to their typology, all planning meetings can be divided into categories according to three criteria - specific, temporary and quantitative.

According to the specific criterion, all planning meetings are divided into reporting (short meetings at which managers report on the progress of the relevant tasks), discussion (briefings on the topic of possible changes in the chosen path to achieve a particular goal) and motivational (meetings at which tasks are distributed and roles are defined in the process of working on a question or task).

According to the time criterion, a planning meeting can be a daily, weekly, monthly process.

According to the quantitative criterion, the planning meeting can be either mass (for all employees) or closed (for a separate initiative group, managers, board of directors of the company.)

Why hold a planning meeting?

If you organize this process as a good tradition before the start of the working day, it will help to discipline the team (reduce the number of morning delays), more clearly outline goals and objectives for employees (after all, as you know, a rational plan for the day is much more effective than a plan for six months) , will make it possible to see the real results of work more clearly (if the reporting of the team to the leader and the leader to the team become mandatory elements of the planning meeting). In addition to the above-mentioned advantages, a well-conducted morning meeting can invigorate employees, increase productivity, and encourage them to work effectively throughout the day. This psychological aspect certainly plays an important role in establishing a positive relationship between employee and employer, and also contributes to team cohesion.

Why do many people consider planning meetings a relic of the past?

Firstly, most people attribute the very emergence of this process to those times when they had never heard of a telephone, and had no idea what the Internet and multimedia technologies were. It turns out that the only way to meet in person and discuss important work issues was precisely those planning meetings. Due to the lack of operational means of communication, a lot of questions accumulated, and such an action took a lot of time (on average three to four hours). On this occasion, one famous American economist once remarked: “If there are planning meetings in your company, then you are on the right track. All that remains is to fire all those who go there and leave all those who are working at this time.”

Secondly, most office workers have a negative attitude towards planning meetings precisely because approximately 20% of the time is devoted to it, and, as many of them note, the boss’s speech lasts on average half the time allotted to this process.

Thirdly, if planning meetings in a company take place every day, then soon this will definitely turn into a kind of formality. After all, most of the tasks that a successful businessman sets are long-term, and a daily report in two sentences will sound like this: “Everything is fine, we are working on it.” The need for a daily planning meeting usually arises at the moment when an enterprise begins to implement a new strategic task in a critically short time frame, or during a crisis. At such moments, it is really necessary to constantly monitor the situation and watch for the slightest changes.

Regulations

Any meeting, even the shortest one, should have its own regulations. One way or another, it helps to work through pressing issues much more productively, making the process more dynamic and effective. It is good practice to send out regulations to employees in the evening so that they can think about all the issues raised and come up with a constructive, meaningful proposal. Among other things, it is worth considering that by the time of the morning meeting, each employee must have a copy of the regulations in hand. It is important to assign responsibility to a specific person who would keep track of time (if the speaker exceeds the time limit described in the regulations, this delays the process of the meeting and, as a result, negatively affects the mood of the team).

To conduct or not to conduct? That is the question

The planning meeting is, of course, an important process, at least in the context of timely goal setting and employee motivation, but the time has come to go beyond the ordinary understanding of this term. Perhaps it’s not so important to gather the entire team in a stuffy office every day, but to master conference technology on Skype. It is also important to take into account the aspect that a constructive planning meeting should last no more than 15-20 minutes. Reporting on the activities of each department can be accepted and discussed with managers during the day, and the morning time can be devoted exclusively to the alignment of forces, determining tasks and priorities.

In any case, each entrepreneur chooses his own management concept, however, in order to understand a little more carefully whether short meetings are necessary for your working staff, it is worth weighing the pros and cons:

Disciplines the team;

Possibility of morning motivation of employees;

Clear setting of goals and objectives;

Opportunity to be creative and conduct planning meetings in an unconventional style;

Lengthy planning meetings tire and reduce the productivity of employees;

Unregulated meetings are usually ineffective.

Now let’s list the steps necessary to conduct a quality planning meeting.
Before the planning meeting, the leader appoints a person (secretary) to record the plans of the participants. And he brings him up to date, gives him this article to read so that the secretary understands all the nuances of conducting planning meetings. The rest of the planning meeting participants do NOT need to read this article. The secretary makes a table where he enters all the participants in the planning meeting:
No., Photo, Last name First name, Tel., E-mail, position, Task for next week and deadlines, Task for last week, Notes: Notes on attendance at the planning meeting, completion of last week’s tasks, etc.

The secretary should audio-record the planning meeting and transcribe the conversation after the planning meeting to record everything that was planned by people, in order to then send this information to those who should carry out this activity.

Then, at the planning meeting, the leader announces the start of the planning meeting, welcomes those gathered, introduces the participants to each other (if there are new planning meeting participants) and says the company’s goals for the long term, for the short term, for the period until the next planning meeting:

Let's start our planning meeting. I welcome everyone! Our global goals: to become number 1 in our industry, for this we need our development statistics to be higher than those of our competitors. Our goal by the end of the year is to open another 200 restaurants. Our goal for the week is to sell 30 franchises. Now I will introduce our secretary: This is Anna Ivanova. This is a very useful person for all of us, she will record the things that we plan to do at the planning meeting so that we do not forget about them and will send us a transcript of the planning meeting by email. Anna, this is Vladimir Petrov, head of the purchasing department. This is Yulia Sidorova, head of the HR service. This is Marya Ivanovna, chief accountant. Etc.

Then the leader warns that during the speech it is necessary to say Last Name, First Name and position, for the transcript, so that others, when reading, can understand who spoke.
- During the planning meeting, so that we can then conveniently read the transcript that Anna will send to us, before taking the floor, I ask you to say your last name and first name, and state your position.

And then monitor compliance with this rule. For example someone says:
- I don’t think we can do this.
The leader interrupts and says kindly:
- Please introduce yourself and name your position.
- Head of the procurement department Vladimir Petrov. Well, I think that we will not be able to purchase this this week, because we need to announce a tender, and this will take 2 weeks.

At this time, the secretary should be thinking in the present tense, should be able to concentrate attention on what is happening, remember and make notes who says this or that phrase, for example, if the manager forgot to ask to introduce himself. And then she reconstructs the data using audio, makes a transcript, and sends it to the participants. Delineates what everyone should do and sends out personal tasks. Then she calls people and reminds them that she has sent tasks to be completed by email and makes sure that her letter has been received.

Then the leader gives the floor to each participant in the planning meeting in turn, so that each one expresses WHAT EXACTLY has been done since the last planning meeting, what specific results were achieved, and not what he did, or why something didn’t work out for him. The leader carefully monitors that the participants do not fog up the specific results of their activities. For example, Vladimir Petrov says:
- I prepared the documentation for the tender this week.
Supervisor:
- what exactly has been done?
- I prepared 25-point requirements for the tenderer and agreed with the financial department on the amount at which it would be profitable for us to purchase this equipment. Etc…

The leader then asks the speaker what he plans to do overall and what he plans to do before the next meeting. He asks about the timing of each task and what he needs to successfully complete the task. And also the leader of the planning meeting ensures that the plans of the participants correspond to the common goal. Before the speech, you can prepare a table with eight columns, in which the leader puts marks in the form of “+” and “-” signs: Last name First name, presence at the planning meeting, long-term plan, due date, weekly plan, due date, compliance with the overall goal, notes (to note what the subordinate needs to complete the task and other marks)
Supervisor:
- Vladimir, tell us about your current tasks and plans.
- I’m going to hold a tender in order to purchase the necessary equipment 10-20% cheaper.
- How long will it take you to conduct this tender?
- It will take me 2 weeks to conduct the tender.
- Okay, what are you planning to do this week before the next planning meeting?
- I need to send out requirements for participation in the tender to equipment supply companies.
- How many companies do you plan to send these requirements to?
- Well, I think there are 10 companies.
- Fine. Do you have anything else to add, are you planning to do anything else this week? (or limit yourself to the words: “Is that all?”, “Are you finished?”, “Do you have anything else to add?”)

Then the leader thanks the previous participant and passes the floor to the next one. And it acts according to the same scheme, with the sole purpose of extracting SPECIFICITY from people.
What did they do last week?
What exactly are they planning to do in the coming week?
We need specific NUMBERS and DEADLINES so that at the next planning meeting we can clearly see whether the person has completed the task that he has set for himself.
And in case of non-compliance, under no circumstances listen to excuses, you just need to ask:
- Anna, what did the procurement department plan to do this week?
- Send ten companies requirements for participation in the tender.
- Made?
- No.
- How long will it take you to finish this?
- Another week.
- Fine.

And if a person casts a “Shadow on the fence”, evades, does not say in detail what he did last week, we do not give him the opportunity to express plans for the next week, because he has not yet accomplished what he set for himself this week, manager simply says:
- It's clear. The tasks planned by the procurement department were not completed. Let's not waste time and move on to the HR service. I give the floor to Yulia Sidorova.
- Yulia Sidorova, head of HR department. This week we interviewed 150 candidates for the position of sales managers, 15 of them entered the probationary period, ...

This is how the planning meeting is conducted and the implementation of tasks is monitored.

What does the lack of consistency in conducting planning meetings lead to?
People become discouraged, they understand that they can do nothing, and they can “talk their teeth” and no one will discover their inaction.

Therefore, our task is for all participants in the planning meeting to clearly see those who are acting, and clearly see those who are inactive. And the idle employees become very uncomfortable, and they either correct themselves and get involved in work, or they themselves leave the team, because people cannot be in a place where they are not comfortable, and they can only be comfortable if they either give results, or can hide their ineffectiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly bring the results or lack thereof to light.
Reward employees for results, for good statistics, but not for words. Encourage people publicly - make dedicated, LOYAL employees stronger, develop them, train them and give them more authority. Find more productive people and make your people more productive. Keep the emotional background in the team at a positive level, and productivity increases significantly.

Organize and conduct the planning meeting as efficiently as possible.

Find a solution to the problem stated for discussion or set the direction for the development of the situation in a constructive direction.

It is interesting to hold a planning meeting so that the participants have no time to yawn and do not feel like they have wasted time.

Action plan

1. Get acquainted with the proposed method of organizing a planning meeting.

2. Prepare yourself, prepare the necessary materials and invite participants.

3. Hold a planning meeting.

4. Summarize the results of the planning meeting and familiarize all participants with them.

How to organize a planning meeting

First, what is required to conduct a planning meeting is the question or topic of the planning meeting. What work problem do you want to solve? What positive effect for the work of the organization will be the result of the planning meeting. Familiarize your planning meeting participants with this issue in advance. This way, you will save time during the planning meeting, and the discussion participants may already come with interesting ideas on your issue.

Second– these are the people who will participate in the planning meeting. What profile specialists and what level of managers, or what line employees do you need to find the answer to the question posed?

Third– location of the planning meeting. It is important that this is a separate room or even a special meeting room. Where there will be enough space for everyone, outsiders (employees not participating in the planning meeting) will not be able to disturb you and the phones will not ring.

Fourth– time of the planning meeting. It is desirable that it be convenient for all participants or permanent. For example, daily planning meetings are held every day at exactly 8:30. In any case, when choosing the time for the planning meeting, you will have to focus on its most important participants. And prescribe it in advance, for several hours, or more correctly, days.

Fifth– regulations for the planning meeting. It is important not only to start the planning meeting on time, but also to finish it on time. Determine in advance the order in which issues will be discussed and the time allocated to each participant. Limit it, this will make the reports concise and as informative as possible. For example, one speech is no more than 10 minutes.

Sixth- improvised materials. The minimum required is pens for all participants and paper. Take care of this yourself, in advance, so that you don’t have to waste discussion time looking for what to write with and in what format. You may also need: flip chart, projector, screen, laptop, printer. All equipment must be prepared and tested in advance.

Seventh– leader of the planning meeting or secretary who will record the process and results of the discussion of your issue.

Formats of planning meetings

1. Summing up, information planning meeting.

Such planning meetings can be held weekly at the beginning of the week for heads of all departments of your organization.

Why are such planning meetings needed?

2. Planning meeting - distribution of current tasks.

Usually held at the beginning of each working day. The format is obvious - the manager issues tasks for the day to his subordinates. There is also no need to stretch the time - everyone received the task and went to complete it.

3. Planning meeting to discuss the issue raised.

You formulate your question in advance, which was formulated for you life itself and the current situation in your market. Voice the purpose of the planning meeting and send this information to the participants. Ask them to prepare (if necessary) on this issue. Determine the rules and secretary of the planning meeting in advance. The results of the planning meeting are sent to all participants. The time for such a planning meeting is no more than two hours. But there are situations when more time is required. In this case, plan organized breaks of 15-20 minutes for tea and just relaxation. (Prepare tea and sweets in advance too!)

4. Creative planning meeting.

Requests for work in coaching
1) Development of creativity resource for growth (self-development, professional growth, business development)
2) Resolving internal conflicts, overcoming crises using the resource of creativity