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"After a tough time growing this company people felt like quitting," says Valarie Wilson, chairman and CEO of
Wilson Sculley Associates Inc., a St. Louis advertising firm. "They wondered what all their hard work was for. "Once a quarter,
Wilson lifts sagging spirits with a Saturday morning QUIT (quarterly internal talks) meeting.
Six meetings and one and a half years later, not one of her employees has quit.
Wilson believes that by seeing the numbers and plans typically reserved for board members, employees know
exactly where they fit in. But she's convinced that it's the entertaining and often-offbeat presentations that really make the Saturday morning
meetings work. At one quarterly meeting that used a sports motif, managers announced lineup changes in the organization chart; posted scores for
profitability, sales, and overhead for the first half of the year; and unveiled the strategy for the second half of the year.
Why hold meetings on Saturday? Employees aren't distracted then, notes Wilson, who has seen the company grow
from $8.8 million in billings to $15 million in one year. |
