The Morning Meeting

Is your organization plagued by inefficient communications, finger pointing, and lack of accountability?

Get all key decision makers to the table—same time, every day.

It's a deceptively simple name for an intricately ritualized event that has delivered significant payoffs to the organizations that have put it into practice:

• Backbiting and turf protection are dramatically reduced.
• Tough problems are addressed while they are still manageable.
• Issues cannot be covered over, and people can no longer hide.
• Ownership increases.

BOTTOMLINE: The Morning Meeting (TMM) is about communication, but imbedded within it are norms and values that are critical for organizations that must deal with difficult issues and adapt nimbly to new situations: an openness to considering multiple perspectives, a willingness to share responsibility for finding creative solutions, and the discipline to move consistently from strategy to execution.

Excerpted with permission from "The Morning Meeting: Best-Practice Communication for Executive Teams," Harvard Management Communication Letter, Vol. 3, No. 2, Spring 2006