| Minimize meetings. Limit most meetings to "actionable" items. (Person A does task X. Person B does task Y after task X is completed.) Keep meetings short. (If the information can be given 1 on 1, great, if you can cover it over email or a phone call, even better.) Maybe once weekly have recap/planning meetings, and make sure they are scheduled and sacred. Use them to look at what got done that week and what needs to get done next week. Limit "vision & direction" meetings to conversations over lunch. You're the CEO, and your job is to get version 1 out the door. If you think that there is a fatal flaw in the fundamentals, don't pull everyone out of what they're doing. Most of these tips only work because of the small number of people (who I assume you are very familiar with) involved. Subscribe to the "Manager Tools" podcast (http://www.manager-tools.com/). There's lots of good information there, though it is designed for larger corporations. Just keep the ideas in mind as you grow. |