The Second Month

By this time—the beginning o£ your second month on the job— you have gained all the company acceptance you are going to get. You've made your own friends and maybe even a few ene­mies. The management people who'd have been touchy if not consulted have been consulted (if not personally in all cases, then at least by the flyer you sent out requesting suggestions and by your confirmatory telephone call), and some of them have already set a definite date for the personal visit you want.

You have handled yourself circumspectly, as befits an intelli­gent person on a new job, and you've turned in the kind of quality performance the General Chairman hoped for when he hired you.

FIVE TASKS FOR THE MONTH

The groundwork for your anniversary celebration is gradually fitting into place, and you are now faced with five tasks which should be completed within this month. In brief, you must

1. Hold a series of Idea-collecting1 conferences with the persons who received your recent flyer ("C'mon! Take a Swing at It!!"), plus any other persons designated by the General Chaiman.
2. Assemble a list of ways in which this company (the organization for which you are preparing the celebration) is different
   from any other local organization in the business field concerned.

1 From this point forward, the word Idea—with an initial capital—will be used to designate and/or identify any legitimate, concrete, well-defined sug­gestion, proposal, recommendation, project, plan, activity, event, or idea sub­mitted or considered for inclusion in the anniversary celebration program.

3. Send out a second flyer requesting Ideas which may be adapted for or included in the anniversary program.
4. Sort, catalog, and gather into uniform presentable shape the suggestions (Ideas) you accumulate as a result of your first flyer ("C'mon! Take a Swing at It!l"), and as a result of individual consultations with company personnel.
5. Begin, and complete, preparations for your first committee meeting.

Most of the people with whom you'll be working will go all out to help you make this celebration a memorable occasion. Once in a while, however, you'll meet an executive honestly un­able to feel any concern about something scheduled to start 12 or 14 months in the future, when the vexing tasks and frustra­tions of today weigh so heavily. And there will be the inevitable few who couldn't possibly care less if the company never has a celebration. Naturally they don't care too much for you because you're working on something from which they've withheld their blessing.

Sympathetic to all this you may be. Understanding, you should be. But stupid you should try to avoid being.

Just remember that you are committed to producing an ex­tremely complicated job within a severely restricted period of time. The mills of the gods may grind slowly and get away with it: they've got eternity. You had better grind out the solutions to your problems fast, because you have only a few months.

In fact, you are now at the point where you may, and must, turn on a little constructive heat.

THE SERIES OF IDEA-COLLECTING CONFERENCES

When you hold your series of Idea-collecting conferences with the recipients of your Flyer # 1 (see Fig. 3, on page 39), we rec­ommend that you go on the offensive—inoffensively—immediately.

Your purpose in making this series of departmental visits is to collect and discuss the program suggestions assembled by the management or supervisory "layer" of personnel as a result of your flyer and follow-up telephone call. But there is another reason:

You want to find out what departmental participation may be developed or arranged. This does not mean that you are on a personnel talent hunt, although you will file in your memory all tips on talented staff members. Rather, you are now, in addition to discussing individual suggestions, taking an inventory of de­partments and trying to determine how (and if) their year-around activity may be effectively incorporated into—or adapted for—the celebration.

You cannot obtain this information, especially from those who habitually hedge and evade and parry, without asking some di­rect questions and repeating them until you get some direct answers.

So enter each conference armed with some blunt, point-blank, no-nonsense questions designed to reveal exactly how the depart­ment concerned (be it publicity, law, merchandising, display, ac­counting, reference, supply, personnel, membership, advertising, operations, or whatever) proposes to mesh its standard activities with, or adapt them for, the over-all Anniversary Year program.

The smoothest way to handle your preparation for these con­ferences is to have a talk with your General Chairman ahead of time. Tell him what you are trying to do, the kind of informa­tion you'd like to get, and the departments you'll be visiting. Ask his help in framing the proper questions for the best results.

He'll be delighted with your initiative and will be glad to help you with the tone and wording of the questions. In fact, he may ring in a few of his own that he's been trying to get answered for months! Take them along with you.

And the conferences themselves?
Well, you might start each one off something like this:
"As you know, Mr. (name) , I've been around about a month now, doing basic research for our upcoming anniversary observance. I've covered a lot of ground, I've met a lot of won­derful people, and I'm learning all I can as fast as I can about the over-all operation. I'm making progress, but in lots of ways it's still a jigsaw puzzle to me. Many of the pieces are beginning to fall into place in my mind, but because I need to know so much so fast I've asked for this meeting. I'd like to get your thinking on what our anniversary celebration should include, and what your department can provide. You've had a chance to do some thinking about my flyer, and I've brought along a few additional questions I hope you'll help me with."

Here are some sample questions of the sort you mention. Adapt them and sharpen them to your specific needs.

To an Advertising Manager you might want to say:
"To what extent do you feel we should change our day-to-day advertising format for the Anniversary Year? Would you have any feeling or comments for a major change? Against a major change? For or against a minor change? How would you define a major change? A minor change? If you feel that we should change, how? If you feel that we should not change, why?"

To a Comptroller you might say:
"Your department and the credit department would seem to be fertile fields for promotional suggestions for our Anniversary Year Celebration. What special activities should we initiate or renew during the period? How can this department help to strengthen the loyalty of our new customers and revive interest of some of the older accounts?"

To a Sales Manager you might say:
"Here we are in a city (community) of (so many) people. Our competition in this field of business is such and such. Tell me, just why should any individual deal with us rather than with one of our competitors? And to what extent can manufacturers and suppliers and dealers be incorporated into our celebration plans? What will they do in the way of new products, special values, additional advertising?"
You cannot know the answers to such questions. You aren't expected to know the answers. In fact, you aren't even supposed to know the questions 1 So you ask.
And what do you learn?
You learn that in a number of instances the division chief or department head doesn't know the answers either. He may or may not have thought much about that aspect of a company celebration, but the questions you ask (accidentally, he is sure, after his head stops ringing) are too pointed. They catch him off balance. He won't have an answer for you. ("You hit me flat-footed with that one!" . . . "I'm not in a position to answer that at this time." ... "I might be able to come up with an answer in the next 30 days." . . . "You ask the damndest ques­tions!")

This doesn't hurt a thing. Your resulting reputation for an uncanny ability to drive straight to the heart of a departmental operation will stand you in good stead throughout the remainder of your assignment. Nobody needs to know how much time you spent getting briefed by the General Chairman.

To the persistently vague, the suspicious, the intransigent, it may become necessary to spell out responsibilities in direct terms. With such people there is no other way:

"Mr. (name) , the situation is this: I am committed to pre­sent to our General Chairman a suggested month-by-month out­line of a tentative anniversary program by (date) . I cannot do the job without this information. Information necessary to our celebration has been asked for by our General Chairman, who is depending on me. Maybe I'm going to disappoint him, but I'm going to try not to. Certain things are expected of me, and I expect certain things of this organization. So when do you feel that it would be convenient to supply me with your sugges­tions and the answers to the questions I've just asked?"

Generally that'll do it. If it doesn't, if it has no effect, your only recourse is to report the situation to the General Chairman. It is extremely unlikely that you'll surprise him. He's undoubt­edly experienced the same obstructionist tactics from the same man before.

Each visit should end with the setting of a mutually satisfac­tory date on which you may expect complete answers to your questions (assuming that sufficient information has not been forthcoming at the discussion). You also may wish to recommend that each supervisor quiz his own staff on celebration suggestions and add their comments to his own.

Mark your desk calendar with the date and hour the super­visor gives you and be sitting on his doorstep when it comes around.

Clear up all visits in this manner in the shortest possible time.

HOW IS OUR COMPANY DIFFERENT?

There is a question you should ask to the point of monotony at this stage of planning. Include it without fail, of course, among the questions you ask at any of the meetings reviewed above. Include it also as a permanent part of your daily conver­sation.

"Here we are you say, "in existence all these (number) years. Certainly it seems reasonable to assume that in such a length of time we've developed some areas in which we are The Best, bar none. Or ways in which we stand apart notably from any other similar operation in the community. I don't know what they are, those areas or those ways. But I want to know. Maybe we wrap more Yo-yos or pack more rivets per hour than anybody else. Maybe our kitchen uses more scouring powder than any other organization of our size. Or maybe we've got more parking space than anybody else in town. Or maybe we've got a taller building, or an older one, or a newer one. Or maybe the company has more service units across the country, or more feet of fire hose in the hallway, or a bigger mail operation. But whatever we've got that sets us apart—besides our long life in the community—I want to know about. I'm going to need a lot of things to brag about during this celebration, and I need your help to find them. Will you sweat your brain over it and see what you can scare up?"

And you'll be surprised. Over the next few weeks—within this present month—replies to this repeated query and request will begin to bear fruit, and the list, edited and arranged, may come to look something like this:
We are            We have
. . . the biggest                         . . . prestige
. . . the most convenient (be-    . . . more convenient hours
cause of multiple loca-              . . . trading stamps
tions)                                       ... the greatest number of
. . . unselfish (as attested by      units
invariable oversubscrip-           . . . the largest number of free
tion to charity drives,                services for our patrons
and co-operation with              ... the widest selection of
and in all civic projects)            stock
. . . concerned about the           . . . progressive employee rela-
safety, comfort, conven-           tions
ience and satisfaction                . . . free parking that is really
of our customers                      free

. . . able to understand and . . . outstanding adjustment
serve patrons in many policy guaranteeing cli-
languages                   ent satisfaction
. . . open every evening            . . . world-wide contacts
. . . the only     ... a bargain basement
. . . the best equipped               . . . the largest staff
. . . recognized national adver- . . . the most skillful techni-
tisers                          cians
. . . the most experienced         . . . special-delivery service
. . . employee loyalty as at­tested to by size of our Quarter Century Club

Obviously any such collection is solid gold from a promotional standpoint. When you complete your list, you should plan to approach the head of the division or department from which each item has come (or with which the item is concerned) and dig for additional information. These ideas are the germs of promotion campaigns which certainly should be mounted during the anniversary celebration. Plan to elaborate on each advantage your company has, spotlight it, play it up, sell it! Sell them all, and what they have meant to the community in the past, what they mean today, and what they can mean in the future.

Do not be unduly concerned if, as is almost certain to happen, you turn up complaints and criticisms, too. Any survey will turn up weak spots and deficiencies, because every organization has some. But technically they are in the area of the Public Relations Director. All you are seeking is favorable selling points. If you consider criticisms you hear unmerited, forget them; if you con­sider them serious, or want to learn more about them for your own protection, discuss them with your General Chairman. There is often a very simple and logical explanation of the apparent weaknesses, but see if he wants them reviewed by the Public Re­lations Director. If he doesn't, drop the matter. Your job is to strive continually for greater public and employee awareness of the true favorable facts about the company through the activities you recommend for inclusion in the anniversary celebration.

FLYER #2 REQUESTING STAFF IDEAS

It is now time to prepare and, as quickly as it can be cleared for content and policy, distribute a second flyer to gather in a second collection of Ideas for the celebration. A satisfactory form (Fig. 4) is presented on page 65.

In the matter of distribution, we recommend that the limited circulation of the first flyer be abandoned and a much broader distribution be substituted. Just how broad is a matter for dis­cussion with the General Chairman. You can get his recommen­dations when you visit him to report on the results of your personal-contact tour of the organization.
A set of your approved goals (did you get acceptance for those suggested on page 45?) should accompany every copy of this second flyer you distribute.

ASSEMBLING AND CATALOGING IDEAS

When you have put Flyer $:2 into the office mail, you are ready to turn your attention to the Ideas you received as a result of the flyer mailed out last month ("C'mon! Take a Swing at It!!"), and the notebook full of suggestions you picked up in your recent series of personal Idea-collecting calls.

These Ideas (suggestions for activities) are now in various stages of preparation, legibility, and intelligibility. It is your immediate task to edit them into clear, forthright, uniform style for presen­tation to the General Chairman. It is not, at this point, your job to decide which Ideas the General Chairman will see. He sees all of them, in as neat and readable a form as you can contrive, and he—along with whomever he may wish to share the responsibility (you may be included on the editorial board or you may not)— decides which are probabilities, which have possibilities, and which may be eliminated out of hand.

To that end you should
1. Type out each Idea separately, double-spaced, on a standard 8½" x 11" sheet of typewriter paper. (See Fig. 5.) We suggest that, since you will be having much of your work—including this set of Ideas—mechanically copied from time to time, you learn what kind, or weight, of paper works best in the duplicating machine which will be doing your work. If your copies are to be routinely

What's Cooking?

Not so many days ago we came around to you and said: "Look — the company has a          
anniversary coining up in about          months. How about helping us dig up some ideas about how the birthday should be marked?" `

And you said: "Swell. We'll get you some. But we'd do a better job if we had some notion of what you're shooting at. What are your objectives?"
And we said: "We dunno." And you said: "Oh."

And went out and did a fine job just the same by collecting a total of (number of Ideas received) suggestions for activities to mark the Year. Those suggestions of yours are now being reviewed by Management.
And now that we're a bit further ahead with our planning, we're attaching to this page the goals accepted as objectives for the Anniversary Year and its activities — and asking you to go Idea-hunting one more time.
This note comes to ask this favor, and for the privilege of telephoning you in about two weeks for an appointment. At that time I'd like to pick up any suggestions you have accumulated, discuss them with you, and thank you personally for them.
Meantime, for the first round which you've won, and for the second round coming up: a sincere Thank You for your co-operation.
(Signed)
(Co-ordinator)
(Telephone Extension) (Date)

Fig. 4. Here is another idea for an informal flyer soliciting suggestions for anniversary celebration activities and events. The wording obviously makes it useful only after a preceding flyer has been distributed.

made by ditto or mimeograph, the quality of the paper on which you type your first draft won't matter. However, if the copying will be done regularly on one of the machines using a heat, light, or photographic process, use of paper stock suited to the machine's requirements will expedite your work.
2. Leave a place under or near each Idea for recording personal reaction to the Idea. You may type out a form like this:
Yes__________ No____________ Maybe
or you may have a rubber stamp made (this is easier and not at all expensive) which looks like this:

Offer this choice routinely from now on with every Idea presented for review.

3.Give each Idea its own title at the top of its own sheet by putting the name of its matter in capital letters at the top of the sheet. Use of such a title makes for easy alphabetization and easy future reference.

4.Not combine Ideas on a single sheet of paper. You inevitably will get a number of Ideas which belong roughly to the same "family” Ideas for contests of various sorts illustrate the problem. You'll get Suggestion Contests, Dance Contests, Beauty Contests, Sales Contests, Dress Design Contests, and so on and on and on.But if you list the whole batch on a page simply headed CONTESTS, you'll have succeeded in burying most of them beyond recall so far as any future quick reference goes. So give each Idea its own page and its own voting stamp

and put it in its own proper alphabetical position. Each in its turn then can be weighed fairly and impartially on its own poten­tials, and not judged by the merits, many or few, of the family it accidentally joined. Also such separation will make relocation of any individual Idea easier and quicker as the number of sug­gestions grows and your workbook expands.
5. Alphabetize and bind these pages of Ideas into a workbook of some description. Figure 5 on page 67 shows how these pages should look. These preparatory steps deserve considerable care because these same pages (retyped and revised as added informa­tion is acquired) will shortly be removed from the workbook and mechanically copied (see (1) above) to make the report which you

Fig. S. How to set up your workbook* This Illustration demonstrates a simple way to assemble celebration Ideas in compact, uniform style. Alphabetized thus on •Individual looseleaf pages, the suggestions for anniversary activities may readily be filed for easy use or quick reference, located instantly to add to or extract therefrom information, or removed at will for copying.

will use at your first formal meeting. (See page 80.) We have found that a satisfactory type of book for this job is a three-ring looseleaf binder with three-inch rings. Yours to make is the decision as to how you'll divide or index your material as it accumulates. How­ever, some sort of control, even the simplest sort of sectional dividing, is advisable. It will provide you with a quick and ready reference, and it will supply a running account of what has happened, what is currently happening, and what is scheduled to happen. As the workbook fills, you'll find that putting gummed reinforcements on the ring holes is insurance for a longer life. And the life of your workbook pages, if you collect the batch of inspiring Ideas we expect you to collect, is going to be an active one!

DEFINING "PROGRESS MEETING"

As the second month advances and you keep on top of your job, the time comes to start preparations for a Progress Meeting at which not only your General Chairman will be present, but also such other officers and executives of the company as he chooses to invite.

This is the first time you've heard the term "Progress Meeting" but since well be using it frequently you need to know what we mean by it.

Your General Chairman, whether you know it yet or not, has selected an advisory group from among his fellow officers. Back in Chapter 2 we assumed that ultimately you'd have a chance at some committee assistance and some fresh viewpoints after plans had progressed just about so far. We referred to the committee which would evolve as the Policy Committee.

Well, even if he hasn't told you, the General Chairman has a Policy Committee. And henceforward you will meet every so often with this Policy Committee. The meetings will have two main purposes: first, to keep members of the General Chairman's ad­visory group (and through them such other persons as may be) up-to-date on anniversary celebration plans and progress; and second, to make available to the General Chairman and to you, the Co-ordinator, some smart company brain power.

At these Progress Meetings you will present a report of progress. The Policy Committee will review all aspects of it on the spot. Aspects reviewed will include a screening of the Ideas submitted for the anniversary celebration program, a thorough airing of all attendant problems, and discussion of all circumstances or situa­tions which may in any way be affecting adversely the amount and direction of program progress.

"Progress Meeting" is our own designation. It is serviceable and it is handy. Since it is also purely arbitrary, like our term "Policy Committee" for the General Chairman's advisory group, you don't have to use it if you don't like it. But, as we said, you need to know about it.

PLANNING PROGRESS MEETING #1

This first Progress Meeting is fully as important, albeit in dif­ferent ways, as was the preliminary question-and-answer session you had with the General Chairman last month. It should be scheduled for the end of this month—the second month of work on the anniversary celebration—or at the very latest the first week of next (the third) month.

You begin preparations for the meeting by going to the General Chairman and making the following five requests:

1. You ask him to set up a meeting. Identify it casually in your conversation as a Progress Meeting, or as Progress Meeting #1. The name may stick, or it may not. Perhaps another will be substituted. Tell the General Chairman that at this Progress Meeting you plan to present an account of stewardship, a report of progress, and the first collection of Ideas you've rounded up for the anniversary celebration. You should point out that this meeting will very probably be a long one and that consideration might well be given to holding it at a club or private dining room and working right through the lunch hour. Or the General Chair man may arrange to have lunch served in his office.
2. You request confirmation of a specific date and hour for the meeting as soon as possible. Chances are the General Chairman will set a date and time right on the spot, get acceptances by office telephone from the fellow officers he plans to invite, and follow up with a confirming memorandum to them. We suggest that you see that this meeting remains in his mind by preparing such a confirming memo for him and bringing it with you. (For a sample
   form, see Fig. 7, on page 77.) Offer it as a courtesy and a convenience.
3. You request the names of the other persons who will be present. This information is necessary to you in order that you may prepare and deliver sufficient copies of the meeting material. If some, or all, of the persons he names were also present at your question-and-answer session last month, you'll know that they constitute a committee whether anybody admits it or not. If no one was present last month but the General Chairman and yourself, then his answer to this inquiry will reveal a committee mem­bership. Make no mistake: the persons who appear at this up coming first Progress Meeting are the ones who will be making anniversary celebration decisions—and deciding course, content, and ultimate fate.
4. You request selection of a Chairman for the meeting. By all means get the General Chairman to accept the assignment if you can. He'll be present anyway and, while technically it is your meeting, your main functions will be to answer questions and keep your ears open. The General Chairman can keep proceed­ ings in line better than you could ever hope to. He's done it a hundred times with these same persons. However, if you're going to be Chairman, you'd better know it now.
5. You request a Preview Meeting with the General Chairman alone, to be held a week or ten days prior to the Progress Meeting. Explain your purpose: you would like him to review in advance, and give official clearance to, the agenda for the meeting and the material on which the meeting will concentrate.

A NOTE ON PREVIEW MEETINGS

"Preview Meeting" is another of our homemade terms. It is the name we give to the private meeting with the General Chairman which you should set up in advance of each regular Progress Meet­ing, and before you distribute any material pertaining to the meeting.

The purpose of the Preview Meeting is to give the General Chairman a preview of the material you propose to include in the Progress Report and cover at the meeting. You do this not only as a courtesy to the General Chairman, who certainly rates it, but with a very selfish and extremely practical motive of your own.

As we said above, Progress Meetings are held (a) to keep persons of consequence in the company abreast of developing program activities, and (b) to bring their official weight to bear—either favorably or otherwise—on the form and content of various aspects of the program.

Progress Meetings are not rambling, random monologues by the General Chairman or the Co-ordinator. Neither are they free-for-all wrangles.

Each meeting is carefully researched by you, is equipped with an agenda, is numbered consecutively, and is anchored firmly to a Progress Report bearing the same number.

The keystone of the Progress Meeting is the Progress Report. Without the latter, there would be chaos. A copy of each meet­ing's Progress Report goes to each member of the advisory group for advance study before the meeting, and each Progress Meeting becomes, in effect, a trial court for the contents of its Progress Report.

How foolish you would be, then, not to review with your Gen­eral Chairman any material so important, before you distribute it. Perhaps some of it should not be distributed at all in the form you've prepared. Or maybe not just at this time. Perhaps some of it, all unintentionally, would commit you to a foolish or dis­astrous course of action.

After all, no matter how much you've learned in the time you've been with the company, you're still a greenhorn in strange terri­tory. The General Chairman, on the other hand, has probably been around a long time, carries a lot of weight in the organiza­tion, and is deeply committed to the success of the celebration.

By having the General Chairman preview proposed meeting material before you duplicate and distribute it, you can save yourself the risk of making embarrassing errors in tactics. We shouldn't even have to mention such a routine precaution!

COMPLETING PLANS FOR PROGRESS MEETING #1

Now you return to your desk and conclude plans for the first Progress Meeting by completing the following eight steps:

1. Prepare a tentative agenda for the meeting. This tentative agenda (a sample will be found in Fig. 6, on page 76) will become the permanent agenda upon acceptance by the General Chairman.
   
2. Get it cleared at the Preview Meeting you've scheduled with him a week ahead of the formal meeting.
3. Remove from your workbook (or whatever file system you have established) the entire collection of anniversary Ideas you've assembled up to now. Arrange them alphabetically and neatlyretyping wherever necessary—for presentation to the General Chairman at the preview meeting. At that time, he and you will review the material and accept or revise the proposed agenda.

72    Blueprint for Progress
3. Determine haw the General Chairman prefers to handle the first presentation of Ideas to the Policy Committee—his advisory group. It may be done privately and prior to the Progress Meet­ing, or publicly at the meeting.

CHOICE OF METHODS OUTLINED

Each member of the Policy Committee may, upon receiving his advance copy of Progress Report #1, review each individual Idea —each suggestion for an anniversary event or activity—therein and vote on it prior to the Progress Meeting. The member's vote, arrived at privately, thoughtfully, and without pressure, is regis­tered simply by making a check-mark in one of the squares in the rubber-stamp design near the

Idea.
Remember?
The individual copies of Progress Report # 1 are then returned to the Co-ordinator for tabulation. After completing tabulation, the Co-ordinator prepares a copy of the results for each committee member. He returns the committee member's personal copy of Progress Report #1 at the Progress Meeting, along with a copy of the vote breakdown.

An advantage of this method is that it requires each committee member to familiarize himself with the contents of the Progress Report before the meeting, and to decide in advance how he feels about the value of each Idea in the light of the accepted goals. Thus, to a meeting comes a committee that knows what it is up against, has given some thought to the matter, and has arrived at some personal convictions about the day's agenda.

The alternative?
The alternative is postponement of a review of the Ideas until the committee is assembled and the meeting called to order. In such an event you may safely double the time required for a meet­ing because (a) it is a sure bet that not one member of the com­mittee has reviewed his Progress Report (press of business, you know), and (b) the final half of the meeting will be participated in by tired and indifferent men. Wait until you've tried to evaluate with clear mind the implications in 117 Ideas at a single committee meeting!

If the General Chairman is toying with the notion of waiting until the Progress Meeting, at least point out to him the hazards of wasted time, committee irritation, and the likelihood that some Ideas of merit will be overlooked through sheer weariness.

If there are Ideas in Progress Report #1which he would like to have presented in the very best possible light, suggest that they be held out from the report for a future meeting of the committee, called solely to review them. This is the agreed method of choice where an Idea, because of complexity, potential value, or special executive interest, merits detailed explanation under the most favorable circumstances possible.

The screening of dozens or scores of Ideas by this method is cumbersome, unwieldy, and unfair.
4.     Prepare two different cover letters. Bring them with you to the Preview Meeting. One of the two will be selected by the General Chairman in accordance with the way he wishes to handle original committee consideration of the Ideas. The letter form he selects will go to Policy Committee members as a cover to their copy of Progress Report #1. (A choice of cover letters will be found in Figs. 8 and 9, on pages 78 and 79.

PROGRESS REPORT #1

5. After your Preview Meeting with the General Chairman, incorporate into the meeting material any recommendations he has made. Retype the material afresh in the form pictured in Fig. 5, and have sufficient copies of each page printed to supply a full set to each member of the Policy Committee. Make two extra sets of copies for emergencies.
6. In addition to the material above—agenda, cover letter, set of Idea pages—see that sufficient copies of the accepted goals for the anniversary are printed so that a copy can be bound into each Progress Report. They supply assistance in evaluating Ideas.
7. When the duplicated materials are delivered to your desk, collate if necessary. Then proceed to make up the neatest presentation possible by binding each set of report pages into a colorful manila folder. Each book thus produced, e.g., each copy of Progress Report #1 thus produced, will contain

a.     The proper cover letter.
b.     The agenda for the Progress Meeting.
c.     The reference set of accepted anniversary goals.
d.     The complete list of Ideas accumulated to date.
8. Personalize a report for each committee member by putting his name on the cover. It will also add notably to the dignity, importance, and value of the Progress Report if you make the effort necessary to deliver each copy personally. You don't need to make a regular practice of it, but this time it's important.

IDEAS FROM SPECIAL PEOPLE

Item #4 in PART II of the agenda for Progress Meeting ‡pi (see Fig. 6) can be a worrisome thing if it catches you unprepared. It involves protocol. The question which this item raises (and if it doesn't, something else will—you'll have to face the problem eventually) is simply this:
What is the method of preference for handling Ideas which come from highly placed officials in the company?

Such Ideas, such suggestions for anniversary program events, may be presented at this meeting, since we assume that Policy Committee members are also top-level company employees. Or they may come to you in the office mail or personally in a casual hallway encounter. Or they may come to you from the General Chairman himself, either as his own or those of a brother officer carrying the General Chairman's blessing.

Of course, the suggestion may be simply wonderful. The fact that a suggestion comes from the Chairman of the Board doesn't necessarily make it impossible! Many a suggestion coming from a highly placed company official has proved to be the cornerstone of a splendid program, and often it has been offered so gently, so diffidently, so almost casually, that it might well have been missed entirely if proffered by a less important staff member. If this is indeed the case, you have no problem at all. You're lucky.

But sometimes there come Ideas for activities or events which represent special pleading for a pet project (e.g., the recommenda­tion that an art exhibit be held, coming from an ardent sponsor of local art projects); or which are entirely outside the framework of the celebration (e.g., political activity for area improvement); or which are impractical for budgetary or other reasons {e.g., a suggestion that a major symphony orchestra be hired for a concert in a community with no proper facilities).

When such suggestions come—and sometimes they come not only from top-level executives themselves, but with the concur­rence and backing of other highly placed officials in the company —they pose a delicate problem. Certainly they may not be rou­tinely Approved ox Eliminated by the Policy Committee and then forgotten.

Your job, on receipt of any Idea from a source of major conse­quence, is to research the suggestion with scrupulous care and the most painstaking detail. Then you assemble and present to the General Chairman the results of your investigation. You may make a recommendation if asked, otherwise no. The General Chairman, with or without the aid of his advisors, makes the decision.

If the decision is favorable, then the Idea ultimately will be produced. If the decision is unfavorable, there remains a further step.

Because the position held by the official who submitted the suggestion merits such courtesy, some person of stature in the company must meet with him and review in detail the investiga­tion which has been made, the facts uncovered, and the reasons for the resulting decision. In other words, with persons of this importance, a negative decision rates a full-dress explanation.

There may, of course, be an occasional situation where an un­desirable suggestion assumes the form of an order. What to do? That's a foolish question! Accept and produce the suggestion, of course!

AGENDA for PROGRESS MEETING #1 of the Policy Committee for the Anniversary Celebration
Piari>           Date___ ·_______________
(Approximately at the end of your 2nd month on the job)
PART I: Review (responsibility o£ Co-ordinator) Review of past eight weeks. What are we trying to do? Who are we trying to do it to? How badly do we want to do it?
PART II: Progress Meeting #1 (responsibility of Chairman)
The Policy Committee reviews the collection of Ideas for the Anniversary Program and renders answers to these questions: X· Which of these Ideas do we like pretty well? 2.. Which of these Ideas shall we put on ice, for another look later?

1. Which of these Ideas can we eliminate immediately?
2. What additional Ideas would committee members like to submit for consideration at this time?
3. What is the general direction we want to take in Anniversary Year planning in .the inmediate future?

PART III: Conclusion (responsibility of Chairman) Concluding comments. Adjournment.
Fig. 6· This Is a suggested agenda for Progress Meeting #!. Naturally the matters which a Co-ordinator selects for discussion at his Progress Meetings will reflect the problems most important to him* However, the matters included or implied in this agenda are basic and discussion of them should not long be delayed.

MEMORANDUM
Date______________________________
TO: Name of Policy Committee Member
FROM: General Chairman's Name
SUBJECT: Progress Meeting #1 re Anniversary Celebration Planning
Will it be possible for you to attend a meeting at (hour) on (day and date) at (place) ?
At this meeting our anniversary celebration Co-ordinator
        (name) and I would like to bring you up-to-date on the status of planning
for the upcoming observance, and also to investigate some fundamental problems.
You will receive from the Co-ordinator, prior to the meeting, an agenda and complete set of Ideas presently available for inclusion in our anniversary program. Please give them your thoughtful consideration.
Kindly notify my secretary of your acceptance and please make no appointments for lunch on that date.
Thank you.
(Signed or initialed)_________ General Chairman
Fig. 7· A form for an interoffice memorandum from the General Chairman to the executive* he wishes to invite to Progress Meeting #JU
Date______________________________
Gentlemen:
The first collection of Ideas for our upcoming anniversary celebration is submitted herewith for your review and opinions. It is called Progress Report #1.
We request your help in conducting a preliminary screening of these Ideas prior to our Progress Meeting #1 scheduled for (date)
You will note that under each Idea there is imprinted a small form providing a place for a choice of check marks. It looks like this

When you have reviewed a suggestion in the report, you may indicate your reaction to it by making a mark in one of the squares.
You may check "Yes," indicating that you favor inclusion of the Idea in the cele­bration program. You may check "No," indicating that you do not consider it desirable for inclusion in the celebration program. Or you may check"?," signifying uncertainty, as though you said: "Maybe. Let's not decide finally right now.*'
There is a set of Anniversary Year goals bound into this report to assist you in making your decisions.
There will be          (number)         of you thus "voting" separately and privately. When
you have finished recording your opinions please return your book to me so that I may tabulate results before our meeting. Copies of the voting results will be provided to each committee member prior to the meeting.
With your help a great deal of underbrush may thus be cleared away before the meeting and the meeting-time itself devoted to outlining the direction we want to take in the immediate future.
Your copy of the Progress Report will be returned to you at the meeting.
Thank you for your assistance.
(Signed)                                          Co-ordinator
Fig. 8· This is cover letter "A." This form may go to Policy Committee members as a cover to Progress Report #1 if the General Chairman agrees to a pre-meeting reading of Ideas and voting by each member of the committee. (Refer to text*)

Date-Gentlemen:
This first collection, of Ideas for possible anniversary program use is called Progress Report #1 and is submitted herewith for your review. Included also is a copy of the agenda for Progress Meeting #1, scheduled for (date) , and a set of the accepted goals for the celebration.
There is a great deal of underbrush to be cleared away, and the scheduled meeting will include a careful screening of each of the (number) Ideas included in this report.

No costs are indicated at this time because' it will be only after the basic over-all plans for the celebration have been approved, and each tentatively accepted Idea evaluated separately for effective contribution to the whole, that it becomes pertinent or possible to assemble and present cost figures.

The purpose of sending this report to you now is to enable you to give some thought to its contents prior to our meeting.
Please bring your copy with you to the meeting.
(Signed)                                          Co-ordinator

Fig, 9· This Is cover letter "B," suggested for use as a cover to Progress Report #1 if the General Chairman opposes any pre-meeting voting by Policy Committee members on celebration plans

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