Million Dollar Team Principle # 101: Your Team Meeting Should Haunt You the Night Before
If you are leading a team, your meeting should haunt you the night before. You should prepare as if you are speaking at the Super Bowl. Why? Because that one hour is the single most important hour of your entire week.
To be great at something, it isn’t enough to know you should do it. You must know what to do, how to do it, when to do it—and then repeat it thousands of times.
This is where the OODA Loop comes in. Developed by U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd, the OODA Loop is a decision-making framework built for fighter pilots in combat. The acronym stands for:
- Observe – Gather data, facts, and what’s happening in your environment.
- Orient – Put it into context, understand patterns, and assess meaning.
- Decide – Make the call on what you are going to do.
- Act – Execute immediately.
Then you do it all over again. The speed and quality of your loop determines the outcome of the battle.
Team meetings are no different. Each week you Observe the numbers and performance. You Orient by discussing challenges and opportunities. You Decide what actions to take. Then you Act by assigning responsibilities.
At first, you’ll stumble. But after dozens and eventually hundreds of meetings, you’ll begin to master the rhythm. Your team meeting will become the most effective hour of the week—the accountability tool that drives results.
From 2012 to 2020, I ran an effective team meeting five days a week. That consistency was the single most powerful accountability lever I ever pulled. Because when the team shows up every day, they build momentum, discipline, and culture.
Think about it: if your team showed up to the office five days a week, would that give you a competitive advantage? Absolutely.
Now the question is: will you run your meetings like a pickup game… or like the Super Bowl?
