W.W.W - One Meeting Addition with a Huge ROI

A Simple Way to Instill Clarity and Accountability

How many times have you left a meeting unclear as to next steps?“Who’s calling the sales team?” “When is the draft deadline?” “Am I taking the lead on this or you?”

Too often, the lack of clarity creates more conversations, delays, and wasted time.

Here’s a quick fix: end and start every meeting with five minutes of W.W.W.

Who does What by When.

1. Assign a point person for each task, confirm the objective, and set the timeline.

For example: 

“Sara, you’ll meet with the sales team to determine the product launch date. Please complete this by Thursday. Does that timeline work for you?”

This ensures barriers are identified and support is offered in real time. It really is that easy. You will create a list of the tasks in WWW format to email with the minutes.

2. At your next meeting, start by reviewing the prior W.W.W.— with confidence and expectation of progress: 

“Sara, please report on your discussion with the sales team and the launch date.” (a statement of confidence and strength- assumes positive intent)

Notice the difference from the softer: 

“Sara, did you get a chance to meet with the sales team?” (feels timid and casts doubt on their ability to follow through.))

Clarity + accountability in five minutes. That’s it.

Your role is to be consistent. The one thing that will instantly kill this process is forgetting to follow up. You are the leader and people look to you to model expected behavior.

Introduce and explain the process, and commit for six months and then reassess its effectiveness as a group. Adjust as needed. My guess is that you will find resounding acceptance and appreciation. Who doesn’t like that?

Consistency builds trust. Lack of follow-up kills it. Accountability drives results.

If you feel inspired to double down on meeting effectiveness read my other writing on How to Make Your Meetings P.O.P.