Monday Mornings at ABI

By Elliot Schimel

One of the constant challenges faced at many companies is internal communication. When a company’s divisions aren’t talking, it can often lead to slowed innovation or handicap a team from doing its best work.

What’s the best way to kick-start company-wide communication to ensure that all divisions are efficiently sharing information? For us, it’s Monday mornings.

Every Monday morning, energized ABIers grab their cups of coffee and head to the conference room.  In the span of half an hour, everyone in the office is given the opportunity to share recent successes, challenges and current projects with the rest of the team. Oftentimes, someone will bring a brief presentation outlining lessons learned in a new project. Whatever the focus, these meetings ensure that everyone in the office is collectively learning by sharing experiences.

Our Monday morning staff meetings are molded after Rudy Giuliani’s morning meetings. During his tenure as Mayor of New York City, Giuliani held meetings that were open to all department heads in his administration, ensuring that everyone on staff had access to him on a regular basis. Additionally, the meetings served as information sharing sessions within the administration and were invaluable in building coalitions when introducing new ideas or legislation.

At ABI, these meetings have become an essential tool for information sharing. It is important for everyone to have the opportunity to share their successes and new endeavors. It has also become an invaluable platform in sharing challenges. Sometimes an account team will discuss a challenge they are currently stuck on, and another member of the agency will perk up and explain how they dealt with a similar situation. In the long run, the time spent meeting regularly has already saved time for the agency, thanks to the ongoing sharing of lessons and shortcuts.

Elliot Schimel is a Senior Account Manager at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach him at +1 212-529-2583 and eschimel@abipr.com.

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