What to do instead of one-to-one? Three events that will bring your leaders together
Hello everyone, my name is Sasha Kombarov, I am the CEO of a web studio. Today I’ll tell you about how to make friends with department heads in a company, enrich each other’s experience and generally work better 🙂
I spent a very long time with department heads only one-to-one. We met once a week and discussed it in a format: what had been done, what were our plans for the next week, current issues and problems.
This is producing results, but the team looks isolated. We get together for joint dinners and hold a strategic session once a year, but this is a bit of an understatement. And events for the sake of events are like that.
And so, at one of the business club meetings, a more experienced leader shared his ideas with me. I digested them, implemented them, polished them and now share them with you 🙂
1. Masterminds for managers
Mastermind is a group format of work where participants periodically meet and help each other achieve personal goals through the exchange of experiences, generation of ideas and mutual support.
Before the event, participants write a request. This does not necessarily relate to work; it may also be related to personal life and personal goals. We write it at least a day in advance so that all participants can think about it.
On the day of the event, we free ourselves for two hours and concentrate on the mastermind.
Before the start, we discuss important events over the past period, news, and successes.
Let's look at what we managed to implement since the last MM.
There is a fixed time of 15 minutes for each request and its analysis. The participant voices it, others can ask clarifying questions and then share their experience.
At the end of his request, the participant shares what was useful for him and what he will take into work. And so on in a circle with each participant.
There should be a moderator who guides the participants, records the results and important thoughts. And, if necessary, shares his experience.
Then we put it all on the board so everyone can refer to it.
Meetings are confidential, requests and experiences of other participants are not shared so that everyone can share candidly.
The group must be permanent so that trust and support are formed within.
I participate as a moderator, guide the guys and share my experience. We've already had two meetings. The first one turned out to be crumpled, but the second one has already revealed everything.
I made the mistake that since managers meet, the issues are only managerial. But I was sent on time, and I am already sharing my experience with you.
Why do this anyway? This is an opportunity to enrich each other’s experience, a step towards development and growth. Get to know each other, improve teamwork.
2. Joint planning meeting
We get together with production, personnel, marketing and sales, everyone spends 30 minutes talking about what happened in the past period, what plans for the next and asking questions.
This format allows all departments to be synchronized, each manager can ask each of them questions and solve accumulated problems. Well, brainstorm on some topics.
Today we were a little behind the timing because we were doing it for the first time and were getting used to this format.
The guys liked it, and I noticed for myself points that need to be worked on.
3. Synchronization by responsibilities
What is its essence?
1. Each department head writes what he does;
2. Then everyone writes about everyone who does what and is responsible for what;
3. At the end, in turn, everyone reads to themselves, and then everyone reads about him.
This way we are synchronized: who is responsible for what, what functionality the manager has, and to some extent we receive feedback.
Everything went smoothly for us, there was no desynchronization and this makes us happy.
