Long-Term Planning and Communication

When we think about our weekly meetings and what we should review there has to be a bigger picture in mind. We’ve all been in far to many meetings where we go around and discuss the same project we have for the past 3 meetings, or even worse just a laundry list of what needs to get done next week. So at Echo Execution we’ve created a simple format to help teams prioritize what they focus on and ultimately communicate about. Its called The Echo Strategy Document and it focuses on starting with your North Star and working our way backwards to quarterly and even monthly objectives for every team.

The focus of the team needs to be aligned with the company’s goals each month, and the company’s monthly goals need to feed into quarterly and annual focus as well. When you start with a 3-year plan in mind it makes it easy to understand what we need to prioritize this year to make sure we are on the right track. As you back your way from long-term to short-term as an organization it gives the individual teams a clear and concise roadmap to cascade initiatives from.

When this process is done correctly it allows weekly meetings to focus on what we are doing toward the monthly goals without people straying into side-projects and misaligned initiatives. This drives execution on an individual level that ultimately builds throughout each team and week to help companies scale at a much higher rate.

This process doesn’t happen over night, it takes 3-6 months to get the rhythm and consistency down. But you have to start one week at a time, this week try to set the expectation that your weekly meeting needs to stay high level and strategic. It get’s easier every time!