Sitting in a recent meeting it took me quite some time to realise that there was no agenda available. The meeting was fairly charged and so the lack of agenda went unnoticed until the half time break. Although the meeting had got many items out into the open for discussion we were no closer to discussing the important item that we had gathered to resolve. The Chair announced an agenda for the second half of the meeting (after some prompting) and a resolution was achieved in a far easier and efficient manner. How many meetings do you go to that don't have an agenda? How much better would they be if there was one? Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' http://www.smartspeed.co.uk/

When we tackle the wastes present in a business we often take a view that we need to eradicate them all. All at once! Whilst this is an admirable approach a number of clients have found that by taking one waste at a time they have achieved far greater results. Taking one waste category at a time (such as waiting) we found that people were far better able to locate and recognise the wastes, focussed activity rather than a shotgun approach to this activity. Next time you are waste walking through your business consider breaking the activity up into various aspects, or assign various members of your team to spot the individual wastes. Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' http://www.smartspeed.co.uk/

When the end of a project is coming up it is useful to reflect on the planned end point. Many projects get to a specified completion point and the learning that has taken place over the course of the project has not been re-invested and the plan has not been revised. By changing the end point by even the smallest amount you can end up with a far more effective project. Whether this is converting all of the learning into new policies and procedures or communicating with other project teams about what you discovered reviewing the end point can have significant benefits. Look at the current planned end point and ask yourself "is this still the right end point, or do I want something different now?" Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' http://www.smartspeed.co.uk/

Sitting in meetings watching the people sitting around the table becoming increasingly bored leads me to wonder.... 'If we had a timekeeper and agreed time slots would the meeting run in a tighter fashion?' There are some great ideas available for improving meeting performance - such as Edward de Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats' but it is rarely used in organisations. Someone once asked me if I spent any of my time dealing with business fundamentals - and my answer was yes, a lot of time. Surely running effective meetings in an efficient manner is a business fundamental, something that should invigorate the team whilst creating solutions and making decisions that would otherwise not be made - not something that wastes peoples time. Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' www.smartspeed.co.uk