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Hello and welcome back. In this week’s episode we introduce the topic of holding brainstorming and action-planning sessions that I call ‘Action Meetings.’

An action meeting is a meeting where problems are treated as opportunities. Where discussion is minimized and creative thinking and brainstorming are maximized. Like so many of the practices we share the skills involved were honed largely in my work with companies in crisis – my testing and proving ground for strategies that had to work in real life, at the rough edge of the real world.

Action meetings enabled us to tackle any and every issue that stood between where we were in these crisis cases – and where we had to be. We used action meetings to tackle the big issues of cost-cutting and sales or donor development – and petty issues as well. I always emphasized the need to attack the little things that festered and pestered and bothered people, and distracted them unnecessarily.        

Here’s an example of an issue that really bothered people but – because they had no systematic process for identifying and solving problems and generating solutions – no problem-solving culture and ‘machinery’ as I called it – just never made it onto anyone’s agenda.

The client: The head office branch of a national contractor supply business.

The problem: Sales counter staff (and customers) complained (for years apparently) that their telephone receptionists would forward calls to counter stations that weren’t staffed, so phones rang again and again until the caller hung up or a staff member would finally go to that empty station and answer the call.

The cause: The receptionists weren’t able to see the counter stations, so would simply forward calls to ‘counter sales’ instead of routing them to a station that was staffed.

The skill set needed: I suggested that we use the issue to introduce and practice the skill of organized brainstorming – the foundation skill we used in conducting Action Meetings.    

The ideas: Dozens of ideas were generated and recorded on a whiteboard. One of the first was a simple suggestion: “Why don’t we just walk over and take a look?” As that idea was recorded on the whiteboard I suggested we stop brainstorming and go there now. (When you’re building a problem solving culture, immediacy is a key to success.)

The solution: We did a quick walk-through and the solution presented itself immediately – a row of filing cabinets blocked the receptionists’ view.

The Action: We immediately moved the row of cabinets 14 inches – and their view was no longer obstructed.

Disposition: Problem solved. Case closed. In less than 5 minutes. Closure on a problem that had caused bitterness among staff and customers for years – and undoubtedly caused some customers to take their business elsewhere. Ouch. 

I know. I know. This example seems unreal – impossibly, brutally, unbelievably simple. Just common sense. But in my experience, sad to say, so terribly, terribly typical. Why? Because common sense is so rarely common practice. (I often joked with clients that if common sense was common practice I’d be out of work.) But the truth is I wouldn’t have known these simple remedies either if it wasn’t for the urgent demands of my turnaround work – where obstacles to performance of every kind had to be solved – right now – or the show was literally over. This reality was a powerful motivator – and creative thinking generator – for me as well as my clients.

Your call to action.

This week I encourage you to choose a minor problem that has been annoying you and/or those you lead, but for some reason (or no reason) hasn’t been addressed. Hit it with a little informal brainstorming and see if you can resolve it. Not sure of a topic? Ask yourself if (metaphorically speaking) you have unanswered phones ringing in your place of work (we all do).

See you next week with tips and tricks on brainstorming and holding action meetings.

Neil