Issue No. 135 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests that there are only four core values that matter. Agree or disagree? Plus, here’s an idea from John Moorlach, member of the board of supervisors for Orange County, Calif. He took a year to read my book—using a daily six-minute segment—and then recorded his thoughts in writing. Read his generous endorsement on my Management Buckets website.
Your Short List of Values
When Bill Butterworth writes or speaks, I plan on laughing—and he never disappoints. Example: skip ahead in his new book to his fourth period chemistry class story about the “Second Coming of My Conjugations,” and you’ll break out in a cold sweat. While laughing. Which isn’t easy.
But when Bill writes, I also plan on learning. The Short List is poignant, positive and powerful. Example: “…tapping into love’s tremendous power is like a smooth golf swing—you allow the golf club to do the work instead of swinging so hard you hurt yourself!” That memorable line is classic Butterworth. Wit and wisdom are at it again in this very special book (just 137 quick-reading pages, with long-lasting results).
You’ve probably enjoyed Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in their classic movie, The Bucket List. But have you ever made your own “Short List?” What are the four core values that trump all the others? Butterworth suggests that they are love, honesty, faith and courage.
This is the perfect book for adding inspiration and thought-provoking discussions to your next four staff meetings. Ask your team members to present their own short list of values. Oh, and be sure to read how Bill cleverly got out of umpire duty at his son’s little league games.
To order this week’s book from Amazon, click on this title: The Short List: In a Life Full of Choices, There Are Only Four That Matter, by Bill Butterworth.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) What are the four values on your “short list?”
2) Who will stand up and recite our corporate core values by memory? Do these values impact our day-to-day relationships and work? If not, what should we do about it?
The Target on the Wall - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in the Meetings Bucket, Chapter 20, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to give your boss a weekly update form—listing your three big targets on the wall.
PETER DRUCKER shared a story at a small retreat gathering that I will never forget. He was consulting with a Fortune 500 company CEO. At the end of the morning meeting, he asked the CEO the $64,000 question: “This afternoon, as you know, I’m meeting with your vice president of marketing. What key result must he achieve by the end of this year?”
According to Drucker, the CEO answered immediately. “That’s easy,” the corporate titan responded. “My VP’s key result for this year must be ABC.” (While I was at the five-day retreat when Drucker told this story, I don’t recall the specifics, so we’ll call the goal “ABC.”)
That afternoon, he met with the VP of marketing and began, “This morning, as you know, I met with your CEO and asked him what key result you must achieve this year.” The VP, like his boss, responded immediately. “That’s a no-brainer. We’ve agreed that the key result for marketing must be XYZ!”
Drucker wasn’t surprised and those of us in the room all laughed because we’ve been there. We walk out of staff meetings, strategy meetings and strategic planning retreats and we’re absolutely convinced that the assignments and end results are crystal clear. The target on the wall is “ABC,” but somehow, a vice president hears “XYZ.”
What’s the solution? Every team member must put in writing (repeat: put in writing) five to 10 annual Standards of Performance (SOPs) that are reviewed and approved by the team. For more help, read the Results Bucket, the Strategy Bucket and the Meetings Bucket in my book—and download the “Weekly Update to My Supervisor” template from my website. (My template, by the way, is included in the appendix of the Harvard Business School Case Study #9-691-102 on Willow Creek Community Church. If it’s good enough for Harvard, maybe you’ll use it.)
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