How To Do A Daily Standup WIFLE Meeting
Business owners looking to build a championship team who run the business for them, will have noticed the gaining popularity of the daily standup meeting and the benefits of implementing them in their own business.
Today, I want to talk about a particular type of quick stand up meeting, that myself and other thought leaders have been implementing with clients for well over 15 years (in my case).
By way of example and a case for why you should implement them in your own business, consider a recent BGL client whose team, after introducing this type of daily standup meeting, immediately began to perform at a much higher level and started working better together.
The environment was much more fun, the team became much more productive and the business owner was able to grow his business by at least another third without adding any additional staff. Given how expensive teams are, imagine how that would affect your bottom line.
Let’s have a WIFLE!….a what?
The WIFLE is a powerful tool to help you build a successful team. WIFLE stands for ‘What I Feel Like Expressing’ and enables each team member to express what is currently going on in his or her life, both in the business and personally. Too often it is assumed that people leave their emotions at the door when they come to work, but the reality is, this unexpressed or ‘bottled up’ emotion can all too often impact team performance.
When implementing in your own business, you need to hold WIFLE sessions regularly in your business. It should be held a minimum of weekly; but, you may wish to hold them as often as daily – depending on your business. This can also work well to have at the start of the week (first thing Monday, including goal setting) and one at the end of the week (to review the week on Friday afternoon). More traditional standup formats are suggested for between these days, to develop your meeting rhythm in your business.
The rules for a standup WIFLE meeting
Stand around the room. Starting with the person next to you, ask, ‘What do you feel like expressing?’ This person then has the right to say whatever he or she feels like saying without interruption. This is most important. If anyone does not feel safe to express whatever he or she feels, you are all wasting your time. Remember to play above the line and keep things positive. As the business owner, the leader, you should keep everyone in check and make sure that everyone gets to express their selves freely with no interruption.
Once he or she has had a say, this person then asks the next person what they feel like expressing. When everyone has had their say (and only when everyone has finished) you may then ask if anyone has any ‘burnings’. This is where anyone who feels they have been wrongly treated during the WIFLE replies directly to the other person, either by apologising or explaining what actually happened. If these sessions are conducted correctly, you will find your team bonding together much more effectively and relating to each other as human beings instead of just people they work with.
It is important to have everyone realise that any complaints should not be personal attacks, but should instead focus on behaviour. This is essential to enable everyone to feel safe in voicing any criticism of you or the system so that changes, and progress, can always be made.
You may also try other variations of this such as the high-low. This is where each team member expresses his or her high and low for the week during the WIFLE. Remember, open and honest communication is one of the first steps in building an effective team.
An effective team is just one of the keys to a successful business. If you would like to learn more about how to maximise the performance of your business, contact our team for more information and help. Or book directly into a strategy session where we will show you how to double your profit and halve your working hours in a quick 10 minute call.
