#8 JooBee's newsletter

TL;DR

🖼️ All Hands alignment: 1 goal, 3 focus points

🤯 All Hands stress: From Chaotic to coordinated

❓ Your views on All Hands

All Hands alignment: 1 goal, 3 focus points

Your OGs (including you!) will miss the good old days when your All Hands calls used to be laid-back and conversational. However, as your start-up grows, that becomes less possible.  Each new member brings his or her own previous experience of what an ideal All Hands should entail. With so many diverging expectations of what a good All Hands should be,  attempting to please everyone is an impossible task.

Start-up grows, All Hands evolves. You must steer its direction.

As your start-up surpasses 100 people, the All Hands dynamic shifts from a casual village gathering to a bustling town. This transition calls for structure, strategy and a well-planned approach for successful meetings.

Founders: It is your responsibility to define the goal(s) of your All Hands - not the Chief of Staff, not the Head of People, not the Head of any other department. While they will execute it seamlessly, it's your job to set the purpose of the All Hands. It is one of the most important channels of communication for your company.

Your #1 goal: Get everyone on the same page

After you wrap up an All Hands, you want every member of your company (your audience!) to walk away with a solid grasp of what happened, what's happening right now and what needs to happen next in the company (the big picture!🖼️).

That means the info you share and the calls to action should hit home for EACH and EVERY team member - what affects all of them and what all of them should genuinely care about.

Top 3 priorities you want people to care about

Think of it as a sturdy three-legged stool, where each leg symbolises a crucial aspect of your business: 1️⃣ Business Performance, 2️⃣ Customers and 3️⃣ People and Organisation.

Now, to make it even clearer, let's break it down into a simple table with examples.

Now, you might be thinking, "What about new joiners' updates, expert guest speakers, Q&A sessions, show and tell, or hackathons?"

All Hands is NOT your only communication channel

Let's be honest, when we introduce 25 new faces at All Hands, folks tend to get a bit bored, and they won't remember them all. Stay focused on the goal. If you want to encourage connection and awareness, try newsletters or Slack introductions during onboarding week – it gives people something to refer back to.

As your company grows, All Hands transitions into more of a broadcast platform for a larger audience, rather than an interactive conversation with 250 people across various geographies, cultures, and languages. Is a live Q&A still doable? Not really. Instead, you can consider having questions voted on, and the top 5 will be answered by your Senior Leadership Team (SLT) via email (with more context) or during department meetings (smaller, more focused conversations) or other more effective methods.

So, remember, let's not throw everything and the kitchen sink into your All Hands. Depending on the needs and goals, you have other forums in place.

Beyond 100 people: Repeatability and consistency sets clear expectations

Once you're past the 100-people mark, consistency in execution is crucial. When you set clear goals and purposes for the All Hands and execute consistently against it, everyone knows what to expect and you can measure how well you're doing against your own standards. Think of it as setting the stage for success – and achieving the impact you aimed for with All Hands!

All Hands stress: From chaotic to coordinated

Let me give you a glimpse behind the scenes of All Hands meetings, a task I've had my fair share of experience with. It's an endeavour that often simmers with stress for those responsible.

Picture this: The person compiling the final All Hands presentation deck is under pressure😖 as they tirelessly chase down contributors, reaching out repeatedly, only to find some of them seemingly elusive and unresponsive. 

Meanwhile, contributors tasked with putting together specific sections (often delegated without context), wrestle with the challenge of figuring out what to include😵 and dealing with the jitters😱 of presenting to the entire company. 

And just when you think it couldn't get more intense, the person at the helm of the deck finds themselves overwhelmed by last-minute feedback frenzy from senior leaders, including the Founder, COO, CoS, CPeO, CFO, etc - sometimes even receiving conflicting instructions 🤯.

No wonder the responsibility of All Hands sometimes feels like a hot potato🥔 being tossed from one department to another in a start-up.

Beyond 100 people: All Hands must be repeatable and run like a well-oiled machine

Tired of last-minute chaos? Here are 2 tips to help you stay organised.

1️⃣ Clarity of accountability

The chaotic scenario described above often results from having too many contributors and no clear owners. To address this, it's crucial to establish clear roles and ownership within the All Hands process. One effective framework is DACI:

Driver: This role is responsible for steering the All Hands to the finishing line. They are at the centre of content contributors, liaising with the IT team and getting the final sign-off from ‘Approver’. This responsibility should be held by someone with project and stakeholder management experience, as they will need to ensure the content is achieving the objectives of All Hands, maintain quality and provide guidance to difficult stakeholders. Leaving this role to an inexperienced team member alone, without active guidance, is unfair and does not set them up for success.

Approver: To avoid too many cooks in the kitchen, appoint just one! The Approver signs off before the All Hands goes live. This key role is typically held by the CEO, founder, or occasionally the COO. Why? Because the Approver carries the weight of accountability for ensuring that every employee across the company is on the same page regarding your business performance, your customers, and your people and organisation.

Contributor: These individuals contribute content or speak during the All Hands. For example, the CFO might present the Business Performance, the VP of Engineering would cover new squad structures, an HR coordinator might compile the eNPS slides or a Graphic Designer could add the finishing touches to slides.

Informed: Then there are the folks who aren't directly involved in putting the All Hands together, but should be in the loop because they might need to adjust their work based on what's announced. For instance, if you're rolling out a new Learning and Development budget, it's wise to let all your people managers know to expect a flurry of employee inquiries.

 2️⃣ Clear structure & repeatable process

To avoid the last-minute preparation frenzy and maintain a consistent quality of experience for your audience, put some structure and repeatable processes in place. For example:

Sharable 12-month All Hands planner: Create a simple Google Sheet or a similar tool that outlines all the nitty-gritty details. Think dates, who's contributing what, how many minutes each section gets, and even some guidelines on the number of slides.

Shareable All Hands presentation template: Craft a branded All Hands presentation template with set sections. This way, you can easily replicate the template for each All Hands and all content contributors know precisely where their content fits.

Shareable presenter brief: For those taking the stage, offer up a simple presenter brief of what is expected of them. It's like a cheat sheet with tips on timing, slide counts, advice on creating visually appealing content and pointers for rocking virtual presentations.

With these 2 essentials in place, your All Hands coordination will become less stressful, allowing everyone to focus on what truly matters: coming together around Business Performance, Customers, and your People and Organisation.

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