How a 90 Day Meeting Rhythm Keeps Your Business on Track
I have to be honest.
I don’t know who came up with the idea of breaking the business year into quarters.
And I can’t find much scientific evidence behind the value of 90-day time periods.
But I have seen, over and over, that 90 days is a “goldilocks” time frame for company goal-setting.
- Long enough to work on bigger initiatives
- Short enough to stay focused and motivated
- Long enough to test if something works
- Short enough to pivot if something isn’t working
No major revelations yet, right? You like the idea of doing company planning every 90 days.
But when I say 90 days…I really mean it.
***
Not everyone takes the concept of a 90-day meeting rhythm literally.
I do. I’ve seen the switch that flips when 3 months between meetings drifts into 3.5, 4, 6, etc..
At 120 days between meetings….
- Teams come in unfocused and distracted.
- They’re working on stuff, but they’ve forgotten the bigger picture.
- They start becoming dysfunctional and weird around each other.
Now a quarterly meeting has to undo all of those issues PLUS plan for the next quarter.
At 150 days between meetings…
- Teams come in angry and upset.
- They have stopped working on stuff. Projects languish.
- You can feel the tension in the room. We have to spend significant time clearing the air.
The longer between meetings, the worse it gets.
On the other hand, you can book your meetings too close together, too.
A team that goes too long will often see-saw back to a shortened quarter.
But at 60-70 days between meetings…
- Everything is still in process.
- There’s not enough time to complete larger projects.
- Teams feel frustrated by the perceived lack of progress
- The meeting becomes ineffective - you can’t plan for next quarter because you really need more time to work on this one.
Like I said…90 days is goldilocks.
***
So how do you actually keep yourself on track? 3 simple things:
- Book your meetings out 1 year in advance. Set up quarterly planning as the tent poles to your business year. The sooner you get those dates in the books, the easier it is to keep the cadence.
- Schedule meetings 70-110 days apart. Aim for as close to 90 as possible, but you do have a small amount of wiggle room.
- Commit, commit, commit. Attendance at these meetings is as close to non-negotiable as you can get. Do not reschedule. Do not push. Do not deprioritize.
When you start to find your rhythm, all sorts of other stuff falls into place. You can align departmental planning with leadership planning. You can deliver a state of the company address with meaningful information to your team every quarter.
You’re in a groove.
This is what alignment looks like. And when you’re aligned, you can accomplish nearly anything.
Need help with your own meeting rhythm? Talk with us about getting the accountability you need.
