Book contents · Part 2, chapter 5 of 6
The Weekly Table is one fixed 90-minute leadership meeting: same day, same time, same agenda, every week. It starts with the Weekly Dials and the Quarter Commitments, takes a few minutes of customer and team news, checks last week’s to-dos, and spends most of its time on the Fix List: a prioritised list of problems solved in the room, one at a time.
- The question
- What must we decide this week?
- How often
- Every week, same day and time
- How long
- 90 minutes, starting and ending on time
- Who attends
- The owner and the people who own the dials
The agenda
The same order every week. Timings are a suggested starting point for a 90-minute meeting.
| Item | Minutes | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Dials | 10 | Each owner says green or red. Reds get a one-line reason; anything that needs discussion goes on the Fix List. |
| Quarter Commitments | 5 | On track or off track. Off track goes on the Fix List. |
| Customer and team news | 5 | Headlines only: a big win, a complaint, a resignation. |
| Last week’s to-dos | 5 | Done or not done. |
| The Fix List | 60 | The most important problems first, one at a time: name the real issue, discuss it, decide, and turn the decision into a to-do. |
| Close | 5 | Read back the new to-dos and their owners, and agree what the wider team needs to hear. |
Twenty-five minutes on numbers and news, sixty minutes on decisions. That ratio is what makes the meeting worth protecting.
How do you run the Weekly Table?
- Fix the slotSame day and time every week, and treat it as fixed as a customer appointment.
- Use the same agenda every weekIn the same order. Predictability is what lets people prepare.
- Numbers before opinionsThe meeting opens with the Weekly Dials, so the conversation starts from the same facts.
- Build the Fix List as you goReds, off-track commitments and news items that need discussion are added during the first 25 minutes.
- Solve the top problems firstPick the three most important and take them one at a time to a decision. The rest wait for next week.
- Turn every decision into a to-doOne owner and a date within a week. Next week the to-do is done or not done.
- Start and end on timeA meeting that overruns gets cancelled the next time things are busy.
The rule, and the mistakes to avoid
- Cancelling it in busy weeks, which are exactly the weeks it is needed.
- Turning it into a reporting session with no decisions.
- Discussing ten problems and deciding none.
- Agreeing actions without a named owner and a date.
How the Weekly Table connects to the rest of the framework
Fed by
- Weekly DialsAre we on track right now?
- Quarter CommitmentsWhat must be true by the end of this quarter?
Feeds into
- Quarter DayWhat did we learn, and what comes next?
Which pains the Weekly Table fixes
The Part 1 chapters where the Weekly Table does much of the work:
- 1Lost in accounting and admin
- 2No time for sales and operations
- 3Can’t step away
- 7Debtors that keep growing
- 10No structure to run the business
Questions owners ask about the Weekly Table
What is the Weekly Table?
The Weekly Table is one fixed 90-minute leadership meeting: same day, same time, same agenda, every week. It starts with the Weekly Dials and the Quarter Commitments, takes a few minutes of customer and team news, checks last week’s to-dos, and spends most of its time on the Fix List: a prioritised list of problems solved in the room, one at a time.
What should a weekly management meeting agenda include?
The weekly numbers, progress on the quarter’s priorities, brief customer and team news, last week’s actions, and most of the time on solving the most important problems, one at a time, to a decision.
Who should attend a weekly management meeting in a small business?
The owner and the people who own the weekly numbers, usually the leads for sales, operations and admin. Five to seven people is ideal; with more, decisions slow down.
Some problems are too big for 90 minutes, and some decisions need a step back from the week. Every 13 weeks, the Quarter Day handles both.
Chapter 6: Quarter Day →Want this built for your business?
A free 30-minute call about where your business is and which part of the framework would make the biggest difference first. You speak to me, not a call centre.
Book a free callor WhatsApp +356 9905 7169