A Friday Fix is a habit every manager should have! Take 30 minutes out of your Friday afternoon to focus on one problem or weakness the team faces. In the 30 minutes allotted, you have one aim: to get a single action agreed that will fix the problem. It's that simple!
How do you prepare for a Friday Fix?
The most important thing to prepare is that you have identified and shared the issue or weakness by Wednesday. People think about problems subconsciously and may also discuss casually as they work on other things. This means that when you come to sit down together you are ready to think about actions you can take. Some members of your team may come with ideas already thought through. As you develop the habit of a Friday Fix, the time spent actually discussing the issue shrinks and more time is spent getting the action right.
What types of issues should you focus on?
Focus on issues and weaknesses that the team themselves can fix and don't require input or approval from others. Be very specific. Issues raised by customers or by other teams are ideal.
What should a Friday Fix not become?
The biggest danger is that the Friday Fix becomes a Friday afternoon moaning session about everything that is going wrong. You will need to move quickly to action. Manage the conversation strictly. It is about fixing the problem not describing it.
What happens during a Friday Fix?
There are six simple steps:
- Define the problem. You should do this by Wednesday and share with the team. At the start of the session, check that everyone fully understands what the problem is and why it is important.
- Collect suggestions. Get everyone to write down on post-it notes possible solutions. Don't do this verbally as the talkers will dominate.
- Group the suggestions. Put together similar ideas. Try if possible to get this down to five or six groups if you have a lot of ideas.
- Evaluate the suggestions. I use three categories: might work, hard to implement, and won't work. But feel free to set your own. Get the team to agree which suggestions go where. Best if you only facilitate this process and let the team work it out.
- Agree what you will actually do. From the might work list, choose one action that you are going to take. Keep it to only one. Agree who will take the action and when they will complete it by.
- Agree when and how you will review the impact of the action. At the start of the next Friday Fix, get a progress report on the action taken.
Start having your Friday fix today!