Work Smarter: Organize with Closed loop culture
In our series dedicated to help you diagnose your own productivity challenges, and work smarter: Closed Loop culture.
When you have a CCS in place, the next move to becoming organized is to work towards what we call a Closed Loop culture. A closed loop culture is a team-wide norm of noticing and helping close open loops when you see them. You can start working towards it yourself right now.
So how do you close things off when they’re left open in conversation? If you notice it’s open, close it!
Ask ‘who, what, where’ questions and get commitments made
Having a closed loop culture is especially useful in team meetings. It’s about making a habit of asking closed loop questions like these:
- Who is capturing this?
- Who is owning this?
- Who else needs to be involved?
- What needs to be done?
- When does this need to get done?
A closed loop culture means the responsibility for getting things done is shared across the team. It also saves you and your co-workers the time and frustration of trying to remember who was responsible for what and when.
Your mission is to close loops you see left open in your next team meeting
To kickstart this norm, try asking ‘who, what, when’ questions. If there are shared tasks, you can create a transparent CCS together to capture team commitments.
Keep an eye out for open loops, ask open loop questions, and help capture commitments.
Next: Focus – Create ‘if-thens’
