This is the system that I have developed through the years, it's simple, kind of low-tech, but it works:
- Meeting starts every Monday night, 5PM/end of business day
- Meeting ends when it ends. Usually 1-2 hours, but at times till midnight
- Only executives, one per department: so CEO, COO, CFO, SW Development, Marketing/Sales... no more than 5 max 7 people
- A google spreadheet
- Projects are ranked by importance: 1,2,3 and 4. 1 High, 2 medium, 3. low. 4 just placeholder for ideas
- Projects must have a completion date of 3 months or less. If longer they get broken down into <3 months chunks
- Weekly deliverables. All deliverables are due on Monday
- Each row is 1 project, then there are columns for Dependencies, Resources (people, money, things, outside contractors)
- If one of the deliverables is going to be late, or there's a chance it might be late, the executive has to notify the executive committee by email no later than end of business day on Thursday with a succinct explanation of what's going on and revised project deliverable etc.... The CEO is in charge of eventually clarify with the Executive or take any action. If no such email arrives, the deliverable is assumed to be on-time, on-target, and on-budget by the following Monday.
- Only the Executive is accountable. No blaming others.
The above was the original, these days I like to ADD to the above BASECAMP project management for any and all communications between anyone involved. Everything's public, from commitments to comments, if it's not in there, it didn't happen.
Comments
This is the system that I have developed through the years, it's simple, kind of low-tech, but it works:
- Meeting starts every Monday night, 5PM/end of business day - Meeting ends when it ends. Usually 1-2 hours, but at times till midnight - Only executives, one per department: so CEO, COO, CFO, SW Development, Marketing/Sales... no more than 5 max 7 people - A google spreadheet - Projects are ranked by importance: 1,2,3 and 4. 1 High, 2 medium, 3. low. 4 just placeholder for ideas - Projects must have a completion date of 3 months or less. If longer they get broken down into <3 months chunks - Weekly deliverables. All deliverables are due on Monday - Each row is 1 project, then there are columns for Dependencies, Resources (people, money, things, outside contractors) - If one of the deliverables is going to be late, or there's a chance it might be late, the executive has to notify the executive committee by email no later than end of business day on Thursday with a succinct explanation of what's going on and revised project deliverable etc.... The CEO is in charge of eventually clarify with the Executive or take any action. If no such email arrives, the deliverable is assumed to be on-time, on-target, and on-budget by the following Monday. - Only the Executive is accountable. No blaming others.
The above was the original, these days I like to ADD to the above BASECAMP project management for any and all communications between anyone involved. Everything's public, from commitments to comments, if it's not in there, it didn't happen.
Imagining myself as one of the executives in this meeting, this all sounds absolutely awful, and I would be looking to leave as soon as possible.