The Flash meeting is also called a minute meeting or stand-up meeting which perfectly summarizes its format. Its duration can be counted in minutes, generally from 10 to 20 minutes, standing, on the ground, at the place where there is the problem and if not before a visual management panel of activities (problem solving, improvement actions, ongoing experiments, …) of the team concerned.
The last fundamental point is that the flash meeting is daily and always takes place at the same time for a fixed period of time.
The daily flash meeting is a much more efficient routine than a weekly meeting:
The shortest weekly meetings last 2 hours which, compared to our 5 flash meetings of the week, is at best 20% and at worst 240% longer in time.
The flash meetings are held standing on the ground and / or in front of the visual management panel which is updated at the same time. no PowerPoint, immediate viewing by all participants of the issues or topics covered.
Participants are action and reflection, no need to take notes.
If a question, a point is not dealt with before the end of the flash meeting, it will be addressed the next day instead of a week later in the case of the weekly meeting.
As the duration is short (max 20 minutes), each participant remains more easily focused on the subjects treated. Interventions become more relevant.
The manager can more easily take on the role of team leader driven by the time constrained goal and the need to involve all members of the team.
In the context of problem-solving actions, the flash meeting, because it is daily, makes it possible to deal with minor as well as major problems. The only hierarchy will be imposed by the degree of urgency but with the guarantee that during the 250+ meetings of the year all the problems will be treated.
Experience shows that within teams that practice daily flash meetings, there is greater cohesion and a real team spirit, a virtual disappearance of resistance to change, a significant improvement in the involvement of people and a progression of performance.
The Flash meeting is the format used in SCRUM for the daily scrum meeting.
See also the Agile or Lean Cafe format