In my current organization, we utilize tiered meetings but they can be done better.
In my previous organization, I was taught tiered meetings are for attendees/stakeholders to align on the goals of the day and to ask for help from fellow attendees or escalate to the next level manager. In these meetings, all stakeholders must attend to support, answer questions, provide status updates, and ask for help. These meetings are only to be 15 minutes long and everybody stands to help keep it short.
In my current organization, we hold tiered meetings in each sub-organization’s silo where we primarily review a rapid action to-do list. Items on this list can be added by anyone but the items are rarely compared against the goals of the organization. This system makes everything a “hot item”. Most of the time, these rapid actions require help from someone who is in another organization which extends the time to close these items. The meetings end up focusing on pressuring the action owner to go get help and management reprioritizing their actions. This meeting protocol also leads us to create other meetings to fill the gaps in the tiered meeting system.
The solution I am implementing in my team is to revise the tiered meetings to include all stakeholders from all organizations (eliminating the silos) and define the primary actions for the group each day based on the organization’s current deadlines (source of truth). This aligns everyone’s goals and allows stakeholders to obtain the answers they need immediately rather than later through email. This also reduces “hot” items.
This will increase accountability, reduce email traffic, improve communication and the speed actions will be completed.
The protocol is to meet for 15 minutes, determine goals for the day, set expectations for what is needed that day, and ensure the teams are aligned on the priorities. Following the meeting, there is a little extra time allowed for sub-teams to connect for added details on help needed.
This meeting is important and cannot be skipped as this is the lifeblood of efficiency. Also, it is important to keep the meeting from going into the details to keep it on track and allow the attendees to solve the problems amongst themselves after the meeting.
Maybe you can take some of these ideas and implement them in your organization.