Intentionally design your team’s operating system to increase productivity.

As a team leader, wouldn’t it be nice if you could get more done, more efficiently, with less stress? When’s the last time you took a good hard look at your team’s operating system?

What’s an operating system? It’s your teams’ approach for ensuring that it delivers on its purpose. It’s how you make decisions, set goals, define roles, and ensure ongoing progress. It’s the key processes your team executes to deliver value.

You should design your team’s operating system intentionally.

Most leaders haven’t designed their operating systems. Most leaders go with the flow.

A common example of where operating systems should be more intentional is the use of meetings.

Many leaders don’t give enough thought to how much time their employees spend in meetings and whether this time is productive. They lean towards holding a lot of meetings and including everyone, when many of those they include don’t have a clear role in the meeting and perhaps have other work they should be doing.

Recent data shows U.S. labor productivity falling–more hours worked for less output–and I often wonder if our poor management of meetings is one of the contributing factors.

Many employees report meeting all day long and then working nights and weekends to catch-up on their deliverables.

An HBR study by Ben Laker, et al. in HBR, earlier this year, showed that in organizations that decreased meeting time by as much as 80%, employees reported more autonomy, greater communication, greater cooperation, higher levels of engagement, less micromanaging, more productivity, greater satisfaction, and less stress.

This reminds me of Morten Hansen’s (management professor at the University of Berkeley) quote in the “Wisdom from the Top” podcast:

“Systematically, across 5000 case studies… the top 10% of performers… did less. They had fewer priorities, but the right ones. They had fewer metrics, but the right metrics. They had fewer meetings, but the right meetings. Everything fewer, but better.”

So, what should you do with this?

·         Big picture–intentionally design your team’s operating system. Don’t just go with the flow.

·         Regarding meetings–plan your meeting cadence intentionally. Ensure each meeting has a clear purpose and agenda. Ensure each participant has a clear role to play. Cancel meetings without a clear purpose and dis-invite participants without clear roles.