We make it a point to ask ourselves, "What is the purpose of this?" for everything we do.
Of course, our morning meetings have their own purposes and roles, but these have changed depending on the company's stage of growth (the challenges it faces).
Here, I would like to introduce our approach to morning meetings, including how it has evolved over time.
When we first started, it was common for small subcontracting advertising production companies like ours to be at the mercy of our client advertising agencies, and to work all night.
Therefore, some people within the company said things like, "I worked late last night, so I'll come to the office in the afternoon..."
However, our customers' workdays start at 8 or 9 a.m.
Of course, I'm getting phone calls, and it all seems a bit strange, doesn't it?
Furthermore, if employees are allowed to decide their own start times, the company will lose its sense of structure, become increasingly lax, and turn into a disorganized and sloppy organization.
Who would entrust work to a company like that?!
Therefore, by using the pretext of holding a "morning meeting" at 9 a.m., we made it impossible for employees to delay their arrival time for their own arbitrary decisions or reasons.
In other words, the purpose of the morning meeting at the time of the company's founding was to "create a situation where everyone is at the office by 9 a.m."
The initial goal was incredibly naive.
As our staff grew and we began to focus more on our values-based management, the purpose of our morning meetings shifted to "instilling our values in our employees."
It was a stiff, preachy morning meeting, the kind that's typically top-down and where instructions are delivered unilaterally.
However, in terms of "communication," we have considered themes for our morning meetings based on our philosophy, so it was effective in getting people to memorize our philosophy, "creating smiles."
We also implemented an initiative called "Good & New," where participants shared positive events that had occurred within the past 24 hours in about one minute.
This is something that's common in production companies like ours, but back then, we had a lot of staff members who weren't good at communication.
Therefore, I used the morning meeting as an opportunity to practice organizing what I wanted to convey and to practice speaking in front of others.
Since this is something you have to do every day, it's not something to be taken lightly.
With about 200 practice opportunities per year, you'll be able to speak reasonably well.
As we increasingly head directly to client sites or filming locations, it's becoming difficult for everyone to gather for a morning meeting every day.
Therefore, we changed our morning meeting to once a week, every Monday.
While maintaining the overarching framework of instilling our company philosophy, we made minor adjustments to the content, but basically, we utilized morning meetings as an opportunity to incorporate what we wanted to instill within the company.
For example, if you want to promote the use of the company wiki, you could select one topic from the wiki and introduce it during the morning meeting.
Initiatives related to internal branding, such as morning meetings, take a considerable amount of time to show tangible results.
It's similar to how improving your lifestyle or taking herbal medicine can improve your physical condition.
When you start a morning meeting, even if the purpose isn't understood and the staff aren't participating enthusiastically, it's important to persevere patiently until they realize its meaning and necessity.
If you keep at it, one day you'll have a small success, like, "I brought up a topic I heard about at the morning meeting the other day with a client, and it led to a lively discussion and improved our relationship."
Therefore, patience is required to wait until the staff can appreciate the benefits of the morning meeting.
Of course, there's no point in telling a manager's self-serving tales of heroism.
To begin with, not a single staff member is enthusiastic about the morning meeting.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to create a situation where participation is unavoidable, but having staff participate reluctantly makes for the worst possible morning.
It depends on the company culture,I recommend choosing something that can be participated in as casually as possible.Is.
For example, we created content where people would say, "I want to hear what this person has to say."
The person in charge of the morning meeting gives a list of questions to a designated person in advance, and that person answers them in front of everyone during the meeting.
With this method, there are at least two participants: one who is assigned to morning assembly duty and another who is nominated to participate.
Being nominated means that someone is interested in you, so you probably don't feel bad about it, right?
In other words, we are creating opportunities for that person to be in the spotlight.
This also serves the purpose of deepening our understanding of our colleagues.
When you're in different departments, you often don't know what kind of work your colleagues are doing on a daily basis.
(Our philosophy is "creating smiles," and we also place great importance on "creating smiles among our colleagues.")
Furthermore, after answering the questions, participants will receive feedback from other participants.
As a result, it becomes a morning meeting that involves everyone.
For example, in our experience, when a new employee is nominated for such a role, it often boosts their confidence.
Additionally, you can choose the president or your boss, which allows you to discover unexpected sides of them and fosters a sense of closeness.
Thus, with a little ingenuity, morning meetings can be an extremely effective initiative for internal branding.
As mentioned earlier, it takes time to see results, so we recommend continuing patiently while making minor adjustments.
# Inner Branding # Morning Meeting # Philosophy-Based Management
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