Posts tagged Team
The Secret to Our Team Meetings

Wanna know the secret to our team meetings?

Stick to a planned agenda!

Here’s a glimpse behind the exact agenda we use for every single team meeting:

NRP’s Level 10 Meeting Agenda
(as adopted from Traction)

5 Minutes – Prayer and Good News – We each share brief personal and work good news
5 Minutes – Scorecard Review – We report on our individual scorecards that we fill in weekly, where we succeeded and where we struggled
5 Minutes – Rock Review – We simply say “On Track” / “Off Track” to our quarterly “rocks” or goals
5 Minutes – People Headlines – We share positive and critical feedback we hear from clients or followers
5 Minutes – Scheduling Equipment – We added this part in! Since we are a team, we need to touch base on a regular basis about scheduling and renting equipment
55 Minutes – Issues List – We take the bulk of our time to tackle and “issues” we are currently facing. This can be anything from branding to bookings to technical questions. ANYTHING that is an issue!
5 Minutes – Action Items due by next meeting – We leave with clear individual action steps
5 Minutes – Rate this meeting on a scale of 1-10 – We each go around the room and rate the meeting!

Typical business meetings are boring, they drag out too long, they pertain to everyone else there but not me, or they feel like a waste of time.

At least that’s how I always felt, and to be honest… that’s how I ran our team meetings for a long time.

UNTIL I was introduced to a Level 10 Team Meeting!

Over the past year we have been integrating the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) into Nancy Ray Photography, and we have loved it. EOS comes from the book Traction, and it’s a simplified, thorough way to run your business. ANY business. Truly – it can be applied to a small business like mine, but there are several multi-million dollar businesses that use the same model.

It’s brilliant.

The Level 10 Team Meeting comes from EOS. This meeting agenda is one small part of EOS, and you’ll read about “Scorecards” and “Issues” and “Rocks” in this blogpost. If you want to find out more, I highly recommend reading the book Traction – or listening to it as an Audiobook!

Here are the meeting guidelines:
• Meet at the same exact time, for the same amount of time, every week.
• Follow the Agenda as outlined, being extremely respectful of time
• Come prepared, and plan to leave with action items

Once we began using this Level 10 Meeting Agenda, we all felt valued, included, and like it was a huge benefit to our team and our time – not a waste! It has been a game changer in moving our goals and our team forward.

Our favorite part of the meeting is the last section: rating the meeting! In the world of NRP, it gets a Level 10 if we covered solid content, if we started and finished on time, if we stuck to our agenda, if we had yummy food, and if someone cried (which usually happens). We always strive for a Level 10!

And because we like to make our team meetings more fun, we occasionally make it a themed meeting. We’ve done Cinco de Mayo, Halloween Costume Party, and Valentine’s.

So what are you waiting for? No matter how big or small your team is, grab a copy of Traction and implement your own Level 10 Team Meeting!

Work, RoutinesNancy RayTeamComment
September 2017 Goals

Nancy has been on maternity leave for almost a month now, and Olivia and I are working hard in the studio to keep everything running smoothly and have been working towards some really exciting and challenging rocks! Not sure what “rocks” are? Click here to read all about them!

For me, August was all about editing, editing and more editing. We had an amazing line up of weddings in the spring and with 3 double wedding weekends, my list of editing was starting to feel never ending. With the help of tons of pump up music, stretch breaks and amazing clients, I completed my long list! Yes, there will still be editing for me to accomplish this month, but my most of my efforts will be put towards a couple fun projects, like giving our website a nice little refresh, updating our portfolios, and launching free content for you! It’s going to be a great month!

NRP’s Quarter 3 Rocks for 2017:

  • Website Refresh

  • Book 8 Weddings

  • Populate Team Course Content on Website

  • Launch 2 Team Freebies

  • Launch Digital Basics Course

Read more about our Q1 and Q2 rocks!

GoalsNancy RayGoals, TeamComment
March 2017 Goals (& our 90 day rocks!)

I’m going to share a brief little story that has helped me SO much over the past year. It’s a little cheesy, but stick with me, because it’s really good!

•••

One time there was a professor, and he filled a big glass jar with a bunch of rocks. He asked his class, “Is this jar full?” Of course his students said yes! But then he reached under his table and filled the jar with a bunch of pebbles, which trickled down and around the big rocks and filled it even more.

“Now is the jar full?” The class responded, “Yes, it’s full now!” But then he reached down to reveal a cup of sand. He poured the sand over the big rocks and the pebbles.

“Now is the jar full?” The class responded, “Yes of course, it’s finally full!” And of course, the professor grabbed his glass of water and filled it to the brim. The professor finally said, “Now the glass is full.”

•••

The moral of the story is this: the rocks represent the most important things in our lives. If we don’t put the rocks in first, our lives will be filled with sand and pebbles and water… the day to day unimportant tasks that will take over. If we don’t schedule in our “rocks” and prioritize them, if we don’t put them in our jar FIRST, they simply won’t get done.

One thing that has been incredibly beneficial for us as a team is to view break up our NRP goals into this format of 90 Day “Rocks”: deciding what is most important to tackle within every quarter / 90 day period. We got this idea and phrase from the book Traction – an incredible resource we use for goal setting, best business practices, and our effective team meetings.

So what are our Q1 Rocks of 2017? What are the MOST important things to do to set us up for success this year?

– Hire a Studio Assistant
– Hire 3 Interns
– Relocate Callie and refresh studio
– Book 15 Weddings for 2017
– Add 1000 to our Email List
– Complete our Process Notebooks
– Purchase and complete Course Website

We’ve finished the first 3 Rocks, and now we have March to complete the last 4! We’re about halfway done with completing each of those, but we need to finish strong.

After reviewing our 90 day Rocks, now it’s time to mesh that with my personal life and share my March Goals!

March Goals

Do you set quarterly “rocks” or goals? I’d love to hear in the comments below!