Changing your calendar-based meetings to meter-based meetings

Calendar-based meetings can transition to meter-based meetings

In most organisations, the cadence of routine production meetings, 1:1s, or check-ins occurs on our calendar as consistently as a drumbeat. Every Monday at 9:00, every other Friday at 2:00, or on the first Wednesday of every month at 4:00, we participate in the meeting, whether we need it or not. As if we are all asset management professionals, we tend to treat meetings like calendar-based preventive maintenance (PMs). Set the interval. Stick to the interval.

When an asset management organization matures, we tend to see a transition of calendar-based PMs to meter-based PMs. We learn that time-based maintenance is the least intelligent way to care for something you value. Yes, it is predictable. But it is also wasteful, often unnecessary, and sometimes disruptive. From this maturity, we recognize that a service every 30 days is not necessary if the utilization is 50% versus 100%. Instead, a service every 500 pieces would automatically adjust based on utilization. This iteration avoids doing the work because the calendar says so to doing the work because the assets tell us to. If asset management deserves meter-based care, why don’t our “preventive maintenance” meetings? Those boring, calendar-based PM-like meetings.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. - Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices

Calendar-based PMs are inferior to Meter-Based

A weekly staff meeting may feel responsible, but responsibility isn’t the same as necessity. Many organizations hold meetings out of habit instead of purpose. Sometimes, these meetings are filled with simple updates that could have been simply read. People show up to meetings because the calendar says they have to, not because it matters. As if these meetings are gearbox lubrication PM, when we always pump 5 shots of grease once per month in each bearing, regardless of the utilization of the gearbox over the month.

Calendar-based meetings and PMs are easy to schedule but expensive to maintain. Not only can they be expensive based on the cost of attendees, but they can also be wasteful due to variability in attention, clarity, and committed energy. Meter-based maintenance doesn’t eliminate routine checks, but instead, it makes them smarter. It listens to data to respond to conditions or execute the plan. Transitioning to a meter-based meeting does not mean abandoning the cadence. Instead, it means intentionally designing the structure that supports healthy relationships, effective work, and escalation. Meter-based meetings is the proper preventive maintenance on an organization.

Meter-based Meetings

To make a meter-based meeting framework, you will need three things. First, you would maintain monthly “anchor” meetings as a safety net. This is a calendar-based meeting that could almost be looked at as if it were a regulatory PM, and regulatory PMs are calendar-based in most cases. It ensures no degradation of the organization’s commitment to habits and the validation of escalations around uncontrolled processes are being executed.

Second, the team needs to establish controls and triggers to establish a meter-based meeting. If a budget is missed for a month, a budget review meeting would be warranted. If production schedule performance is dropping below a lower control limit, a meeting would be triggered to get the organization back on track. The theme here is to create the triggers or milestones that require a gathering.

When a group of intelligent people come together to talk about issues that matter … it is both natural and productive for disagreement to occur. Resolving those issues is what makes a meeting productive, engaging, even fun. - Patrick Lencioni, Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business

Third, establish the AIM. The AIM of the meeting describe the trigger that was tripped (What) and the reason to get back on track (Why). This AIM (What, Why) establishes the framework and the expectations of why the team needs to meet and what decisions need to be made. With a committed AIM (What, Why), it establishes a meaning of the meeting, and not just a motion. It triggers an empowered workforce that explains what they need to get back on track with no apology.

1. Maintain the monthly anchor as if it were a monthly regulatory PM.

2. Establishes the triggers and thresholds that generate the need for a meeting.

3. Communicating the AIM (What, Why) of the meeting to empower the workforce to request collaboration with no apology.

In a meter-based system, meetings become moments of genuine alignment, not calendar obligations. They define quality, intent, and usefulness. They regain purpose and justify the investment of people’s time. People show up because something requires attention, and not because the Tuesday meeting occurs weekly. For asset managers, meter-based care keeps machines healthy and aligned with the demand. For leaders, meter-based meetings keep people connected, focused, and respected.