The Power of the Management Review

In my previous post, I discussed the art of the Management Review. “So what?” you might ask. Where is the payoff? 

Your company must communicate with customers and suppliers. To do this effectively, your company must communicate well internally. This communication is essential to grow your business, and as your business grows, the importance of unifying your team grows. The power of the MR lies in exposing these communication threads and strengthening them. The following benefits are independent of potential after actions to pursue ISO 9001 certification.

Face-to-face information exchanges

Experience has shown that most people know surprisingly little about what others in the company do; and even more surprising, management is not exempt from this condition. It is difficult to overstate the value of periodic face-to-face meetings among the company’s finest. People get to know and trust each other; and a mutual understanding of the work all do can raise the level of further information exchange regarding a wide range of company issues.

A well-planned, well-run MR is a morale booster because it brings key company personnel together to work as a team for the purpose of improving the company. Each attendee benefits from 1) gaining a clearer sense of how the role they play benefits the company, 2) understanding how that role can be refined and the company strengthened through interactions with teammates, and 3) bonding with those teammates.

Paper trail

Briefing materials, prepared under consistent guidelines, are useful to briefers and listeners alike. These materials can provide source material for proposals. They can be used (following redaction when necessary to exclude proprietary information) to describe the company to new hires, interviewees, guests, teammates, and customers. Meeting minutes and an action-item list are key outputs that capture the lessons and decisions from the meeting. In the event that the MR is part of the ISO 9001 Quality Assurance standard, this paper trail will be source material for much of the information required for certification.

Continual Improvement

One outcome, not generally anticipated by management, is a resolve to do MRs periodically. This tends to confirm the MR’s value and the ISO 9001 requirement for periodic MRs. It is also consistent with the 9001 principle of continual improvement – as MRs are integrated into company culture, their cost / benefit ratio improves.