As I've mentioned before I'm a proponent of much of 37Signals ideas about business, one their mantras is: planning is guessing. Which, if you read further, doesn't mean you never plan it means you don't plan too far out.

The folks at 37Signals suggest 90 days. But they don't offer any specific of how you can do that. Of course each organization may take different tactics, but I've come up with a general shape for that planning, I call it the Next 90 meeting.

It is a once a month one hour meeting designed for a small team of people. Specifically three roles need to be represented: the person who is responsible for success, the person responsible for making sure work is completed and the person who does the work. More generally a director, a manager and a producer.

How those three roles should really be one person is a discussion for another day. For now, those three roles are fairly normal in an organization.

Those are the players, how does the meeting run?

The first 20 minutes focus not on the future but on the past. The majority of time in the meeting should focus on what just happened and what was learned. The idea is to apply these to what you are about to do.This segment is lead by the director.

After looking backward, you would spend 15 minutes on the next thirty days. The goal is not to discuss everything that is to happen, just to make sure everyone is aware of what is happening, key deadlines resource needs and roadblocks. This segment is lead by the manager.

The last 15 minutes are spent on the sixty days after that. Since this area is more unknown the goal here is not to plan as much to think about new things that can be done that will take longer or more research. This segment is lead by the producer.

The division of the three sections is designed to keep the meeting moving and to assure that each person can prepare. Some healthy competition to make sure their part of the meeting runs well is a good thing.

Do you have a meeting like this in yoru organization? How does it work? Comments are cool people.