I was talking with one of the CEOs that we work with the other day about the “weekly update”.  See https://ithacavc.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/the-weekly-update/.  This post presents a variant to it.  Don’t get me wrong, I still love to get weekly updates and still love the purposes they serve.  The critical purpose on top of my mind this morning is “unity”, as in getting the entire team unified on an ongoing basis.  The team is not just the board, but the whole management team as well.  I encourage CEOs to send their weekly updates to their management teams (sometimes editing is necessary, but not often).  The “unity” purpose falls under “amazing communication tool” that I wrote about in my earlier post.

3 Up / 3 Down is a variant of the weekly update (perhaps call it the little sibling – not quite as mature as big brother or sister).  In total it might be 6 sentences (yes, even a recovering lawyer like me can do that math).  On Sunday night, as a way to start off the week with a unifying message to the team, I am suggesting that CEOs (or other person in charge of the update though typically it is the CEO) who have been unable to write a full one page update (and the best updates are not longer than one page IMO), simply write down the 3 things that make them feel up and the 3 things that make them feel down…….and then press “send”.   Obviously the points should relate to the business.  And my guess is that this should take between 5 and 10 minutes max.  Once sent, the board of directors will know what is on the CEO’s mind, the management team will know as well and the CEO will be building unity (among other things).

Now that I have suggested this, I am going to start doing it by sending my 3 Up/3 Down to my venture fund partners.