Focus on Outcomes

Monday, 4th August 2014

Categories: Ideas

Focus Groups, Strategy Sessions, Blue Sky Thinking are all part and parcel of day to day life in businesses of all sizes.

You have to have a nice quiet room, preferable “off-site” away from the office environment and then someone to lead and get things going armed with post it notes and Blue-Tak to stick things on the wall. A couple of PowerPoint presentations go down well, and if possible try and fit in a couple of “break out group” sessions.

Oh and also nice coffee and biscuits and ideally a good lunch to look forward to.

And then of course the day must be during the working week and not at the weekends.

And it must include all the “senior” players and a few hopefuls.

And it should have a note taker – and a report must be sent out within a few days.

And then sadly what normally happens is nothing.

This is because the outcome is not the primary focus and probably not that critical.

If you’ve ever been to a late afternoon emergency meeting that goes into the night because of a major account being lost, or a competitor has taken a dominant position due to innovation, then action follows – because it has to.

There is a relationship between the quality of any meeting and the required outcome. The more essential it is to the survival of the business the better the quality of the input and results.

Next time you have a mid-week off site meeting planned with lunch provided – ask what are the outcomes required to make it worthwhile.

Author: Gamze Bilgili