Talking doesn’t get a project launched – doing does: post 3 of x

I’ve worked with several teams and committees across the country and one lesson I’ve learned that can’t be echoed enough is that “Talking doesn’t get a project launched — doing does.” Sure, common sense we know, but ask yourself how many meetings you’ve been in where all you do is talk about things rather than actually work towards accomplishing the goal?

I have seen the exception to this plague in our society, the work group. It’s not a committee. A committee sits in a circle and gives reports, occasionally but rarely doing actual tasks. The work group is a group that’s been created to perform a task. While a work group maintains elements of a committee (a leader, occasional talking without productivity, etc.) it differs in the element that meetings are not held to disseminate information, rather to actually work on the task during that time.

The ultimate challenge in orchestrating a work group comes in how the group gets started. It’s critical to the success of the group that everyone understands the goal or purpose of the work group. The facilitator needs to explain not only the structure of the group, but also that the group meeting time is a time where decisions will be made and tasks will be accomplished. The true benefit to this style is that members of the team will walk away from meetings feeling something was actually accomplished, rather than they just wasted an hour of their life.

Of course work groups can’t be implemented in all situations. We will still have our need to sit in a circle and share our reports and updates. Here’s my challenge to you with this: how about a standing seven minute meeting? When people are standing, they don’t want to be standing much longer and they focus on getting done what needs to get done.

Startup Weekend really shows that if you spend more time focusing on getting things done instead of talking about getting things done — you’ll get things done! I know, amazing concept. We spent very little time in our product development talking and much of the time doing. Additionally, our 7 minute standing meetings were short, sweet, and to the point. A place where a decision had to be made if necessary, but a quick time to discuss the key matters and get back to work.

Next topic: TBD.