Good-to-Great Meeting Cadence is designed not only to progress us on the hard-edge systems — Winning Strategy, Aligned Execution and Healthy Cashflow Systems — but also to strengthen the soft-edge systems of the organisation — Nurturing Culture, People Excellence Cohesive Team and Coach Cascade Systems. Each meeting in the cadence has its own agenda to fulfil on these objectives.

Meetings are the key to saving team members' time, keeping the team focused, consciously developing cohesiveness and healthy discussions, keeping the culture alive and well, and ensuring that whatever plan is created is focused on and achieved.

There are 7 meetings in the Cadence as follows. The agenda for each meeting is given in the above presentation, along with the duration of the meeting and required participants:

1. Daily Connect
2. Weekly Strategy Execution Meeting
3. Monthly Meeting
4. Monthly Townhall Meeting
5. Quarterly Planning Meeting
6. Annual Strategy Planning Meeting
7. CEO Email Update — Though this is not a meeting, it is a very powerful communication tool to strengthen the organisational culture.

In order to have an effective and efficient meeting, all team members must prepare beforehand — every time. Each meeting has a standing agenda, which makes it possible for all attendees to prepare effectively beforehand. The meetings are effective because the strategic execution plan is developed and agreed upon with the team.

The agenda is set up to strengthen the seven systems of the RYD Business Good to Great Framework in every meeting:

1. Nurturing Culture System
2. Cohesive Team System
3. People Excellence System
4. Winning Strategy System
5. Aligned Execution System
6. Healthy Cashflow System
7. Coach Cascade System

The standing agendas ensure the Cultural and Cohesive Systems are covered in Good News, the People Excellence System and Healthy Cashflow System are covered in the Metrics section, and the Priorities keep a clear focus on the plan and accountability in play. The Dynamic section is where the team members will continue to hone their cohesiveness by sharing stucks, asking for help, or offering help. The discipline of the standing agendas ensures continuous development as a super-performing team by activating the RYD Business Good to Great Framework. The meeting rhythm and the standing agendas are not a recommendation but a must for the good to great journey — of the business, of the leaders and of the CEO.

At the end of each meeting — weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual — the best practice is for the leadership team to agree on 3 Key Messages from the meeting. It is important that the leadership team shares the same messages about the key events, meetings and learnings at the same time with their teams. This will keep the team together and excited as we move forward with the plan to implement RYD Business Good to Great Framework. The messages shared by each leader with their teams must be the same. This ensures all team members have the same information at the same time. It also ensures that the leaders are starting the practice of cascading messages from meetings to their teams.

One Phrase Close ensures before we close a meeting that we check in with each team member. Ask each team member in turn, "From your gut, how do you feel right now in 5 words or less?" It is a chance to check in with each leader and find out exactly where they are, after having been through the meeting.

The discipline of the meeting cadence provides a structure of success for the 7 systems to be implemented. The first step in implementing RYD Business Good to Great Framework is to schedule the meeting cadence and follow it with discipline.

To win the gold medal in the Olympics of Business requires us to bring the discipline worthy of an Olympian on this journey. Our best friends on the bad to good journey, which is a dance to the tune of mediocrity, are stress, long hours and fire-fighting. Our best friends on the good to great journey are — joy of learning, humility of a student and commitment to contribute. It is a joyously fulfilling journey making the discipline required worthwhile, supporting us to lead ourselves, our health, our kids, our relationships, our people and our businesses from good to great, realize our dreams and have it all with ease and grace; while having lots of fun and adventure together along the way.
​
Loving you,
j.
Source: Metronomics by Shannon Byrne Susko

What is this Tool?
It is a 36-month rolling Profit & Loss Statement for your leadership team, inspired by Shannon Susko's Metronomics framework. It gives three views of every month side by side — what happened (Actual), where you are heading (Rolling Forecast) and what you committed to (Approved Budget). It works for both service businesses and manufacturing businesses.

Actual
Enter once the month is closed. These are your real, recorded numbers from your accounting system. Fill left to right as each month closes. Actual numbers never change after entry.

Rolling Forecast
Update every single month — this is the most important column. Your best current view of every future month based on actuals to date, pipeline and known commitments. It 'rolls' forward — always showing 36 months ahead. If your rolling forecast is diverging from your Approved Budget, act now.

Approved Budget
Enter once at the start of each financial year. This is your committed plan — the number you said you would achieve. It does not change during the year. The gap between Rolling and Approved is your early warning system.

Revenue
Total income earned in the period. For service businesses: fees, retainers, programme revenue. For manufacturing: product sales revenue. Use accrual basis — record when earned, not when cash is received.

Total Expenses
COGS + Operating Expenses = All costs combined into one line.

COGS (Cost of Goods Sold): Direct costs to deliver your product or service — raw materials, direct labour, associate fees, delivery costs.

Operating Expenses: Overhead costs that exist regardless of revenue — salaries, rent, marketing, technology, professional fees.

Combining both keeps the tool simple and leadership-friendly.

Operating Profit
Revenue − Total Expenses
What remains after all costs. This is your core business profitability before interest and tax. For most SME leadership discussions, this is the most relevant and actionable profit metric.

Cash
Closing Bank Balance = Actual cash in bank at month end. NOT the same as profit.

Forecast Cash = Opening Cash + Cash Received − Cash Paid Out

Cash Received = Actual payments collected from customers this month.

Cash Paid Out = All actual payments made — salaries, suppliers, rent, tax, loan EMIs, owner drawings — everything that left the bank.

Shannon's rule: Forecast cash first. A profitable business can go bankrupt from cash starvation. Know your runway at all times.

Widgets
Core Volume Metric

Your primary output unit — the one number that, when it moves, tells you the business is working. Replace 'Widgets' with your specific metric:
• Service business: Active clients, coachees, subscribers, patients
• Manufacturing: Units produced, orders shipped, SKUs sold
• Retail: Transactions, footfall, basket size
• Education: Enrolled students, graduates

Widgets is your Leading Indicator. Revenue and Profit are lagging. If widgets are on track, the financials will follow.

How to Forecast Cash First?
Shannon's method: Shannon does not mean you type Cash before Revenue. She means a mindset shift in what you prioritise:
1. Cash first: What is my bank balance today? What cash will I receive? What cash must I pay? What is my runway?
2. Widgets next: How many units / clients will drive that cash?
3. Then Revenue: What does that volume translate to?
4. Then Expenses: What will it cost?
5. Then Profit: What remains?

Cash and Widgets are leading indicators. Revenue and Profit are results.

​Let's keep learning, implementing and massively contributing to joyously lead ourselves, our health, our kids, our relationships, our people and our businesses from good to great, realise our dreams and have it all with ease and grace; while having lots of fun and adventure together along the way.

Loving you,
j.

How to Discover Top 5 Priorities to lead your Business from Good to Great and Top 1 of 5?

Top 5 Priorities are your 20% that will give you 80% outcomes, supporting you to Do Less to Create Massive (DLCM) positive impact.

Top 5 Priorities not being clearly articulated and not known by all our team members all the way to our people on the frontline is a clear sign that the business is not on the good to great journey. It is about survival and everyone is fire-fighting to travel from bad to good. Symptoms of a business on a bad to good journey are that there is stress, team members are working on the weekends, reaching home late with work consuming most of their time; leaving very little time for raising happy, confident, healthy kids, nurturing their relationship with spouse, parents and siblings, and nourishing good health and joyous well-being.

The business will stay on the bad to good journey and dance to the tune of mediocrity if, in every Annual Planning Meeting, time is not invested in co-discovering Top 5 Annual Priorities in alignment with your 3HAG (3 Years Highly Achievable Goal), BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) and Top 1 of 5; and if, in every Quarterly Planning Meeting, time is not invested in co-discovering Top 5 Quarterly Priorities in alignment with your 1HAG (1 Year Highly Achievable Goal) and Top 1 of 5.

Yes, co-discovering. Building a great business is a team sport, and the CEO and leadership team members are equal players, co-leading their business from good to great. Therefore, Top 5 Priorities are not imposed by the CEO but co-discovered.

The CEO is really the Chief Enrolment Officer — enrolling their team, their customers, their business partners, their investors, and their family (if it's a family business) to be on the good to great journey.

Shannon Susko has designed a beautiful step-by-step process for the CEO and the leadership team members to co-discover their Top 5 and their Top 1 of 5 to co-own their shared good to great journey, and strengthen not only the Aligned Execution System of the Business Good to Great Framework but also turn the dial on the Cohesive Team System, Nurturing Culture System, Winning Strategy System and Healthy Cashflow System.

Through the process explained in the above presentation, your coach will support you and your leadership team to co-discover your Business Top 5 Annual Priorities, Business Top 5 Quarterly Priorities, and based on these — the Individual Top 5 Quarterly Priorities for each member of your leadership team and you, through your Annual and Quarterly Planning meetings.

Download the following template on a shared Google Drive with access to your leadership team, your coach and to me, so that all of us stay aligned — enabling you and your leadership team to co-lead your business from good to great with greater ease, grace and velocity.