The Fast-Start Meeting is the opportunity to get your team off to a fast and focused start on completing your mission. Deciding on the format of your Fast-Start Meeting is a key decision, as they can take one of two forms – Classic or Expanded. The purpose of this blog is to outline each and help you decide.

Classic Fast-Start Meeting (4 hours)

The Classic Fast-Start Meeting is four hours and is the most common type of Fast-Start Meeting conducted. It is perfect for teams comprised mainly of local team members where getting the group together is not a challenge. This four-hour meeting gives the group enough time to complete the Project Charter review and all activities leading to the selection of one Act-Now idea for immediate implementation.

Four hours is enough time to get to action, yet it is not too long to cause fatigue for people that don’t normally participate on teams. Teams brainstorm, sort and prioritize ideas related to their mission and agree on specific assignments for converting them to action. Team Members leave with action assignments to be completed by the next meeting.

Expanded Fast-Start Meeting (8 hours)

The expanded Fast-Start Meeting is growing in popularity. Teams meet for a total of 6 to 8 hours over one or two days. Expanded Fast-Start Meetings are chosen for several reasons where meeting for a full day is not a barrier. They include: An urgency to tackle the issue in less than 60 days (cycle time teams using the expanded Fast-Start Meeting can be reduced by one to two weeks if needed), meeting logistics issues (in some organizations, it is more efficient to pull people away for a full day than for 4 hours) and travel (personnel from different plants/locations).

In the expanded Fast-Start Meeting, teams spend more time converting priority ideas into action and typically develop action plans for the top 3 to 4 ideas, rather than just 1 in a classic Fast-Start Meeting.