The Five Meetings
Five recurring meetings that cascade economic objectives down to every employee.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 85%
To get a team aligned around the economic objectives, Miller prescribes five meetings on a fixed cadence: the all-staff meeting, the department stand-up, the personal priority stand-up, the quarterly performance review, and an occasional revenue meeting. The three economic objectives open the weekly all-staff meeting and get repeated at every department stand-up. Priorities cascade downward, each person's five priorities serve the department's five priorities, which serve the three economic objectives. Installed consistently, the meetings make it impossible for anyone to forget where the company is going or why their role matters.
Origin
Miller built the five-meetings framework, detailed in chapter five of his book, as the mechanism to solve the hardest leadership problem he found: getting an entire team aligned around the organization's economic objectives.
Core principles
- 01Aligning a team around the economic objectives is one of the hardest things to do.
- 02A fixed cadence of five meetings instills the objectives at every level.
- 03Priorities cascade: personal priorities serve department priorities, which serve the three economic objectives.
- 04Constant repetition of the objectives makes it impossible to forget where the company is going.
How to run it
- 1
All-staff meeting
Held weekly on Monday, opened by restating the three economic objectives so the whole company hears the destination.
- 2
Department stand-up
Repeats the three economic objectives and reviews the department's five priorities, discussing in about 15 minutes whether they're being hit.
- 3
Personal priority stand-up
Each employee spends about 15 minutes with their department leader reviewing their five personal priorities, which serve the department's priorities.
- 4
Quarterly performance review
Held once a quarter to assess performance against priorities and objectives.
- 5
Occasional revenue meeting
Held as needed to review revenue against the economic objectives.
In the wild
In Miller's system every employee's five personal priorities serve the department's five priorities, which in turn serve the three company-wide economic objectives, all reinforced across the recurring meetings.
→ It becomes impossible for anyone to forget where the company is going or why their work matters.
Common mistakes
Stating objectives once and never repeating them
Without a meeting cadence that restates the objectives constantly, teams forget the mission and drift off target.
Is it for you?
Best for
Businesses large enough that the owner can't align everyone one-on-one, roughly 20+ employees.
Not ideal for
Very small teams where a single conversation keeps everyone aligned.
From the transcript
“The framework is five meetings that you wanna have with your team.”
“You are constantly, constantly, constantly meeting, talking about what the economic objectives are, what your department is doing to hit those objectives, and what every…”
From the episode
Donald Miller: How To Make Your First Million, 6 Steps To Grow Your Small Business in 2023
Donald Miller