Could 10 minutes per day change the future of your startup? Absolutely, if these 10 minutes are used in the best possible way.
A business meeting that falls in the range from 10 to 15 minutes can accomplish a lot. In fact, research suggests you should keep your business meetings within the 15-minute range for an optimal outcome.
Marissa Mayer used to be known for her 10-minute meetings while she was a member of the Google team. If Google can do it in 10 minutes, so can your team.
To hold effective 10-minute sessions that will change the future of your startup, you’ll have to focus on several essentials. The time is enough if you know what you’re doing and what outcome you’re looking forward to.
Clear Purpose
A 10-minute meeting forces everyone to be concise and highly specific. People are all on the same page when it comes to the goal of the gathering and the involvement of each attendee.
The 10-minute meeting will affect the startup culture. It reduces the waste of time, enhances communication and makes everyone more focused on the task at hand. To make the transition to a short meeting, however, you need to have a clear agenda and you need to moderate the discussion.
Statistics show that the average employee spends 31 hours per month in unproductive meeting. Making the switch from such lengthy sessions to just 10-minutes whenever something has to be discussed may feel like a challenge in the very beginning. Eventually, however, the process will become a lot easier.
When drafting an agenda, you need to consider the following:
- What’s the purpose of the meeting?
- Who’s going to attend?
- What problems are these people facing and how will they be addressed?
- Will there be specific goals set?
- How much time will you dedicate to a Q&A session?
Putting this kind of structure in place right from the start and sticking to agenda items will allow you to accomplish a lot more in 10 minutes than some companies do in an hour.
Motivating, Collaborating, Learning More about the Business
Here’s a quick example of what could be accomplished in a 10-minute startup meeting.
Spend the first two minutes to provide a company update or to share some positive news that will get people excited and motivated.
Next, move on to assessing performance or outlining an issue that has to be resolved. You don’t need more than a minute or two to provide the details in a concise, organized manner.
If team members need to contribute to the update or make a progress report, now would be the time to make that happen.
Finally, people can speak up for the remaining few minutes, providing suggestions, sharing their frustrations or asking for assistance on aspects of the work that they feel stuck with.
Admittedly, maintaining this structure will be challenging in the beginning. Once you eliminate the small talk and the distractions, however, all of you can learn a lot more about what the business has accomplished, where it’s headed and how it’s missing the mark at the time being.
Honor Your Commitment to End Meetings on Time (but Maintain Some Flexibility)
To make 10-minute meetings effective, you have to honor your commitment to end such sessions on time.
Studies suggest that meetings running late contribute to a higher level of unproductiveness than those who don’t start at the specified time. Taking more than the designated time to discuss issues will interfere with individual schedules and make it difficult for people to get back on track.
Honor the commitment to keep gatherings to 10 minutes. If you do, you will soon find everyone being more capable of communicating succinctly and cooperating with each other. This is one of the biggest lessons that short startup meetings teach.
At the same time, you should not ignore issues just because the 10-minute window is closing.
If you see that a specific problem has to be addressed, schedule an additional 10-minute session that will highlight that very issue. Such very specific meetings contribute to a better corporate culture and they also let people know that no problem will remain unaddressed.
Analyze Your Current Meeting Policies
Are you missing the mark each time you try to schedule shorter startup meetings? If so, you’re missing the mark when it comes to effectiveness. Findafacilitator can help you pinpoint shortcomings and wasteful practices to make startup meetings more strategic and productive.
Attempting to hold a 10-minute meeting forces you to take a deeper look at the practices that were previously considered standard within the startup environment.
Once you question the norm, you will find out that perhaps a different format can accomplish better results.
Questioning the framework gives birth to innovation, creativity and more tailored practices. These are precisely what a startup needs to move forward and grow sustainable.
A 10-minute meeting isn’t just about a timeframe, it’s much more focused on a business culture conductive of productivity. Communication can be concise and effective. You don’t need hours to get people working together, collaborating and exchanging ideas in the best way. In fact, most issues can be addressed in resolved in 30 seconds to a minute.
Try speeding things up when it comes to strategic startup meetings. Chances are that the team will love this new approach and feel much more eager to participate in the brief, yet focused discussion.
About Author
Sylvia Peters is a Collaborator for Find A Facilitator and a mother of two.
She’s also an expert to bringing the most credible, experienced and personable facilitation to every meeting she attended. In her free time you will find her meditating and making her favorite salad.
