There was a fascinating article on Urban Meyer and his teaching philosophy in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. Then after Ohio State obliterated Wisconsin to make the college football playoffs with their third string quarterback, I took a second look at this methodology.

One of the principle takeaways from this article, was that everyone has the same responsibility and expectations to know the system. I may be projecting a little bit, but I assume that if a less experienced player is asked to run through a scenario and does not answer adequately, it is the responsibility of the more experienced player, to teach the concept. This is incredible because it reinforces knowledge in both, while promoting teamwork. Now I have been thinking about how we might apply this concept.

Every Monday morning we have a meeting with all members of the management team. Pretty much every week someone is missing for one reason or another. Every now and then, we will have a meeting where 3 or 4 people miss the meeting. When this happens, the meeting tends to take on a simpler tone and gets abbreviated. I am also told that when I am not there, the same thing happens. The conversation is cursory and the team tends to go through the motions of having a meeting. Aha, there is a solution. No empty seats, including mine. The new rule will be that whenever someone is going to miss a meeting, they must designate an individual from their team to fill their seat. This designate cannot simply be a seat filler. They have two key responsibilities: represent their team in discussing the meeting content be that metrics or budget or some other topic on the agenda, and to relay all key information to the manager that missed the meeting so that they remain informed as if they had attended. The scariest part for me, is that I am applying this rule to myself. If I will miss a meeting, I will designate someone to share content on my behalf. I must prepare them well since I share something new at every meeting.  No matter how scary it is though, I believe the value created will be far greater.

Having a full group should minimize the temptation to dumb down a meeting that started with great intentions. However, my favorite part of this concept is what it does for the designates.

• What vote of confidence to be chosen to represent your team at a high level meeting.
• What a great opportunity to be exposed to the inner workings and thinking of the business.
• What great showcase for your level of preparation, mindset and skills.
• What an opportunity to learn to communicate better with your direct supervisor.
• What a great training ground for the next level by being exposed to elements of the management role.