Here to Help

Have you ever had an idea to improve something, but weren’t sure if it works in practice? Stumbled upon something that didn’t work well within the organization, not being sure how to fix it? Or just had a – maybe vague – feeling that the organization is missing a value, a principle, a common agreement?

Great, let’s bring it on! Everybody in the room is here to help.

A “Here to Help” meeting is open for everyone. Just put a topic on the agenda (one or two words, no more) and once it’s your turn, answer one question: "what do you need?”

After that, there is room for everyone to participate. The goal is simply to help you get what you need. For organization-wide topics, this may be to get from a vague idea to a concrete proposal, which you may later want to have a more formal decision on. It can also be just to collect perspectives or simply to share something you feel is important.

In other words: anything goes, we’re here to help!

This also means there are no formal rules really, other than the principle that the meeting is held to help sort something out for the agenda item owner. This means that at all times, the person bringing in a topic owns that topic, and decides whether or not she has what she needs.

It also means Here to Help does not replace any other decision-making process in any way. It is an additional form of getting together across teams and divisions (or squads, tribes, or other kinds of (sub)groups your organization has).