Does your company’s executive team struggle with chronic communication problems and a lack of shared accountability? Many times when my colleagues and I are called in to help out an organization, we find that these two core issues underlie their problems.

Two qualities characterize high-functioning leadership teams: 1) Hard conversations happen and 2) accountability is shared—individuals on the top team feel a responsibility to the organization as a whole, not just for their piece of the action.

To take senior teams to a new level of leadership, we have put together a model of communication that we call The Morning Meeting (TMM).

What TMM looks like

Here’s how TMM in its purest form works: Every day, at the same time, the top team—numbering between six and 15 people, both staff and line—assembles around a conference table, either in person or virtually. Also at the table are one or two others who either are responsible for an important current initiative or are valued for their area of expertise.

There’s no preset agenda. While the CEO sits at the head of the table, if there is such a spot, he does not run the meeting, and everyone sits in the same place each day. Around the conference table on folding chairs, in a sort of gallery, are a handful of deputies and executive assistants.

Sometimes the CEO will have an issue or two to begin the meeting. More often, the CEO defers to the person seated to his left, the No. 2 person—the chief of staff, deputy CEO, or chief operating officer—who starts things off and runs the meeting. When No. 2’s issues are fully discussed, the person seated to the left of No. 2 raises any issues of concern, and so on, moving clockwise around the table.

Once everyone at the table has had an opportunity to speak, everyone in the gallery leaves and the top team members get a chance to go around the table again. In this second phase of the meeting, executives discuss issues that demand a higher level of confidentiality. The entire meeting can take as little as 15 minutes or as long as two hours.

The ground rules

§          Anyone can put anything on the table for discussion; it doesn’t have to be related to one’s own area of responsibility. All are expected to be willing to comment on every issue raised, even those that lie beyond their technical expertise or area of responsibility.

§          These are decision meetings, but issues are not just raised and resolved. Implementation plans are broadly outlined and agreed on, and internal and external communication strategies may be considered. Sometimes, with particularly sensitive issues, the exact language that everyone around the table is going to use is hammered out.

§          Once an issue is fully vetted, the CEO determines the rule that will govern it. He decides whether he’ll be the one to make the final call, whether a particular individual or subgroup will make it or whether it will be made by group consensus.

§          Changing one’s mind, even in the middle of the conversation, is OK, even respected. Not having an opinion is not.

§          There are no arguments about factual questions. Participants are to get the facts and raise the subject at the next meeting.

Keep in mind, however, that fact questions are sometimes masks for deeper value-laden issues. An argument about the cost of opening a remote office might mask strategic concerns about whether expansion is a good idea.

Making it work in your organization

The TMM model is a flexible one. During a crisis or during organization-wide change initiatives, we advise holding the meeting daily. When things are running smoothly, meeting less frequently can deliver positive results. Division and unit heads can adapt the model to foster better decision-making and execution within their teams.

On the surface, TMM is about communication, but embedded within it are norms and values critical for organizations that must adapt nimbly to new situations: an openness to considering multiple perspectives, a willingness to share responsibility for finding creative solutions and the discipline to move consistently from strategy to execution.

THE PAYOFFS

Here are some of the most significant benefits that Cambridge Leadership Associates has seen in organizations that have adopted some version of The Morning Meeting:

§          Backbiting, intrateam conflicts, turf protection and second-guessing are dramatically reduced. Everyone owns every decision made in the meeting.

§          Competition for face time with the CEO goes away.

§          “Crises” can be addressed with detachment. When a vice president rushes into the CEO’s office looking for help with a decision during a crisis, the CEO can say, “Bring it up at the meeting tomorrow” or “OK, let’s get the group together now.”

§          Team members feel a responsibility for the organization as a whole. Any problem that one team member has becomes a team problem, and thereby everyone benefits from the experience and insight of the entire team.

§          Miscommunication is minimized. Everyone is quickly and clearly on the same page.

§          Difficult conversations are the norm, and tough issues do not fester until they explode but are addressed while they are still manageable.

§          People and issues can no longer hide.

§          Top team members do their homework better. When “you stay off my turf and I’ll stay off yours” rules apply, executives often feel their obligation ends with providing information. But when group accountability is the norm, executives are motivated to prepare more fully for discussions of business challenges.

The Morning Meeting: Best-practice communication for executive teams

Does your company’s executive team struggle with chronic communication problems and a lack of shared accountability? Many times when my colleagues and I are called in to help out an organization, we find that these two core issues underlie their problems.

Lessons from the leaders of retail loss prevention

Preventing theft, damage and errors such as food spoilage has long been an unyielding and poorly understood problem for retailers. But a few companies stand out in their ability to limit losses, and if every retailer were as successful as they are, the sector could save billions of dollars annually—as much as $27 billion in the United States alone.

The Jock Correlation in business

WITH many sports headlines today trumpeting organizational and solvency issues with various teams and sports associations across the world, there is often an almost missionary zeal to bring to sports a more “business approach.”

Winning: Developing a successful succession plan

Q: What companies would you hold up as examples of succession planning done right? Robert Handfield, Raleigh, North Carolina 

A: It’s sad to say, but your question would be a heck of a lot easier to answer if you had asked for examples of succession planning done wrong. That trend is gaining such ground these days it’s alarming.

Accounting can be fun

People quick to dismiss accountants as the ultimate bean counters have definitely not run into the likes of Roberto Manabat and Emmanuel Bonoan, the dynamic duo that has redefined the business of accounting in the Philippines. Currently sitting at the helm of KPMG Manabat Sanagustin & Co., the Philippine affiliate of KPMG International, the pair has ably guided Philippine companies through the accounting labyrinth without getting in the way of their business activities.

‘I’ll stop exposés if they stop doing wrong’

Sen. Ping Lacson tells the Quijano de Manila forum why investigation is an essential Senate role 

(Excerpts from discussions of journalists with Sen. Panfilo Lacson at the Quijano de Manila Symposium, October 24, 2007, Cherry Blossoms Hotel, Manila. At the panel were Butch del Castillo and Inday Varona of Philippine Graphic magazine, Amado Macasaet of Malaya, Jimmy Gil of dzBB, columnist Lito Banayo and BusinessMirror Senate reporter Butch Fernandez.)

Idiot Box No More

WHERE life is tangled in knots and snarls in the marooned mountainous areas in Mindanao, 12-year-old Mel Velyn Escobar of Midsayap, a town in North Cotabato, finds hope in Knowledge Channel to pursue her education.

Coaching your team’s performance to the next level

Teams are the workhorses of today’s businesses, but they’re workhorses prone to many ailments, from open bickering and sabotage to resolute conflict avoidance. And even teams that generally plow ahead productively can be improved.

Break the paper jam in B2B payments

Electronic invoice and payment systems have been slow to catch on, even though they offer enormous promise for cost savings, speed and transparency in business-to-business transactions.