Extracting Value from Daily Review Meetings

Daily review meetings are an integral part of the of the active management initiative that organizations hire Trindent Consulting to implement.  The meetings have a two-pronged purpose.  They give managers a daily opportunity to review KPIs on the team dashboard to gauge progress against targets, and they function as an open forum discussion for staff to contribute ideas, share best practices, and bring up challenges they may be facing.

The first component is straightforward – managers preform the dashboard review while staff listen and absorb.  However, in most organizations, the second component of the meeting is a challenging one.  When staff are asked to share, the outcome is often not optimal.  Staff can be reluctant to speak up if they feel they’re not being heard, or if they believe they can get away with not contributing or being accountable. 

Without input from staff, the daily review meetings lose their value.  They become an exercise in one-way dashboard review, something that doesn’t require a meeting to be held at all.

Here is where another important tool that Trindent advocates comes into play – the Action Log.  When used as part of daily review meetings, it allows managers to instill a sense of engagement and accountability into their staff, thereby maximizing the value of the meetings.

The Action Log Is More Than a Tracker

The action log is more than just “meeting minutes”.  It’s a tool that allows managers to record, prioritize, and keep track of the takeaways generated during the meetings in order to keep their team accountable; and it functions as a listening tool to drive engagement. 

Unlike meeting minutes, action logs don’t document every discussion point in each meeting, but rather keep an on-going rolling record of the objective to-dos that come up at successive meetings.  Each action is assigned an owner and a due date, and the logs are reviewed at the beginning of each meeting to go over what’s been completed since the last session, and at the end of the meeting to confirm new items that have been added. 

This level of constant attention to the action items serves to not only ensure that no task slips through the cracks, but it promotes accountability of each staff member to complete their assigned tasks, as anything that’s outstanding will be brought to the attention of the entire team.

The second function of the action log is as a management listening tool to drive team engagement.  A common sentiment from employees is that they feel their “voice is not heard” and that “managers don’t listen”.  When actions are added to the list and read back to the team at the end of each meeting, it shows the team’s manager has listened to, and understood, everyone’s ideas.   By documenting these next step actions, team managers are driving engagement by imparting importance and giving time to the ideas and questions their staff have brought forward. 

By using this valuable tool, managers can empower their teams, drive accountability and engagement, and get maximum value from daily review meetings.