BL&T No. 197: Leading Our Weekly Pulse Meeting for the First Time

This post originally appeared in my weekly newsletter, BL&T (Borrowed, Learned, & Thought). Subscribe

Borrowed

"In an interview after the Fire Phone was withdrawn, Jeff was asked about its failure and answered, “If you think that’s a big failure, we’re working on much bigger failures right now—and I am not kidding.”4 The magnitude of your inventions, and therefore your mistakes, needs to grow in lockstep with the growth of your organization. If it doesn’t, your inventions will likely not be big enough to move the needle."

From "Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon" by Colin Bryar, Bill Carr [Book]

Learned

I ended Wednesday morning feeling super energized after leading our two-hour weekly "pulse" meeting for the first time as CEO alongside the Barrel leadership team: Wes (CTO), Christine (Design Director), and Kate (Director of Client Services).

Originally inspired by the EOS framework (as described in "Traction" by Gino Wickman), the other Barrel partners, Peter, Sei-Wook, Wes, and I have met every Wednesday for Pulse for many years. These meetings have been integral to staying in lockstep as a leadership team and proactive in decision-making across all facets of the agency. We're committed to making the time together, so few things get in the way of this meeting.

Over time, we've evolved the agenda to align with our growth and priorities. Nevertheless, I wish I could jump into a time machine and return to when I had just become a partner and started joining these meetings. While aspects of what we discuss today remain the same, I know much of what made its way onto our agenda back then was in the weeds of the work, sometimes missing the bigger picture.

While I was looking forward to leading the meeting last week, I was most eager to expose Christine and Kate to the Pulse agenda. In their roles, they are rightfully very close to the work, not unlike we were years ago. Creating this space to zoom out with them and align on our trajectory was exciting because I knew it would open up a different type of dialogue and collaboration.

For the most part, I adhered to the latest version of our agenda but made some minor adjustments. Here's what our agenda looks like:

Acknowledgments: We celebrate each other's contributions and the week's achievements—everything from project completions to collaborative efforts and learning experiences.

Agency Outlook: We review our sales pipeline and discuss our financial outlook, setting the stage for necessary actions or strategic adjustments.

Team Utilization: Our discussion focuses on staff resourcing and utilization to ensure we operate efficiently. We shift and make changes as needed.

Outreach: We each have specific outreach efforts to folks in and outside our networks. We track in HubSpot and review together.

Accounts Review: We review updates on every current client engagement from Account Managers, identify potential blockers or issues, and tackle challenges proactively.

Updates & Issues: We explore opportunities to improve our client experience and project delivery and share updates on agency processes.

To Do: We create a list of actionable steps based on meeting discussions to guide future actions and ensure continued progress.

I couldn't have been more pleased with everyone's engagement throughout the meeting and the discussion around the agenda. The momentum feels good—I'm pumped to see how these meetings and our discussion evolve in the coming months.