15-5 Reports

15-5 Reports

I’ve managed several geographically dispersed teams over the years and became a big fan of using the “15-5 Reports” described by the legendary CEO Yvon Chouinard, who used daily written reports to run his global company, Patagonia. 

The concept is that it should take each team member no longer than 15 minutes to write their report, and take no longer than 5 minutes to read everyone’s reports the following morning.

I dove straight into the deep end and adopted Chouinard’s practice of requiring daily 15-5 Reports from my team. We were spread over 12 time zones, and 15-5 Reports submitted at the end of each workday were the best way I found to organize, observe, and coach my global team   

Most of my coaching clients require their teams to submit weekly reports. 

Regardless of which cadence you choose, I advise my clients that it takes a firm management style to implement this discipline to a high standard, but if you are willing to persevere, the benefits far outweigh the costs.

I spoke with one of my client CEOs about an early draft of this article. He shared his current best practices and said, “These reports are something I wish I had in place 10 years ago.” 

My top 3 benefits of 15-5 Reports.

  1. Keeps your team informed, aligned, and focused
  2. You can quickly see who needs help and support
  3. Greatly reduces the time spent in meetings

Warning! Expect resistance from some members of your team, especially in the beginning. I liken the process of implementing 15-5 Reports to “jump-starting” a car. 

When I came of age and got my driver’s license, cars with manual gearboxes (stick shifts) far outnumbered cars with automatic transmissions. One advantage of manual gearboxes was that if your battery went flat, you could push the car along the road and “jump-start” it by popping the clutch once the vehicle picked up enough speed.

If you were by yourself, you flagged down a passing motorist to help you push the car to reach the desired speed before jumping behind the wheel and popping the clutch. The process was a great bonding experience with plenty of grunting and groaning, culminating in loud cheers when the vehicle spluttered back to life.

Even on a flat piece of road, it takes a huge effort to push a car from a standstill and get it rolling, but once you build up momentum, you don’t need to push quite as hard to keep the car moving at a steady pace. 

But if you muck up the jump-start and stall the car, it takes another huge effort to push it from a standstill and get it moving again. 

And so it is with 15-5 Reports. You may need to push hard to overcome resistance and bring this discipline to life. Once underway, you don’t have to push as hard to keep things rolling, but you can’t let off the pressure, or things grind to a halt.  

In my experience, A-Players tend to thrive when given a showcase to demonstrate their value, whereas B-Players tend to dig in their heels.     

Here is the process I used to bring this discipline to life with my teams.   

My generic 15-5 Report format (with guidelines):

Top 3 Achievements. 
List up to 3 tasks that were completed, or any other notable accomplishments. Add brief context about why each task was important (ie, “So what?”). Don’t list everything you did. This exercise is not about how many tasks you got done. If you focused on and completed 1 big thing, that’s ok. 

Top 3 Priorities. 
List up to 3 tasks, ranked in priority order. Your #1 thing is the most important action you will take to make forward progress in your role. State each task as a discrete unit of work; a specific action that is within your control to complete before the next 15-5 Report. 

Roadblocks / Needs.
Describe issues that are impacting your progress, or make requests for support

Lessons / Observations.
Describe what you learned, or share observations that the wider team would benefit from

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I like this simple format for both daily and weekly 15-5 Reports, but feel free to make modifications to suit your team’s needs. 

Keep in mind, the report should take participants no longer than 15 minutes to write, and it should take you no longer than 5 minutes to read all the team’s reports. 

I’d require team members to submit their updates by 5 pm at the end of each workday in their relevant timezone, and post them in a dedicated discussion channel (e.g., Slack or Teams) where everyone on the team could read the reports, add comments, or offer support the following morning.

The leadership team also had its own dedicated discussion channel where every manager, including the CEO, submitted their reports in the same manner.

15-5 Reports acted as a powerful forcing mechanism to ensure all staff prioritized their time on the highest-impact tasks for their role. It drove self-reflection and personal accountability.    

And yes, it can be confronting. Many days, I asked myself, “Am I focusing on the right things? Am I doing enough? Am I demonstrating my value? What will the team think of me when they read this?” 

I recommend starting a reporting discipline with the leadership team, then once you are happy with the process and managers are modelling the right behaviors, cascade it to your functional teams.

Litmus test of the individual’s ability.

During the first quarter of rolling out 15-5 Reports with a team, I’d offer feedback on the content of the reports.

To be blunt, I’d micromanage each person’s contribution until it reached the standard I expected by offering coaching along the following lines: 

– Too much content
(Make it interesting for the reader, but I don’t write a novel. I want to spend 5 minutes reading the entire team’s reports, not 5 minutes reading yours.)

– Not enough content
(Don’t fire off a scanty bullet point list with no added value. It gives me the impression that you are a B-Player doing the bare minimum to comply. Don’t be that person. )

– Goldilocks zone
(Yes! You have succinctly demonstrated your value. It shows that you can prioritize your work, follow through on commitments, and identify opportunities for improvement. Keep up the good work!)

I let people know that the content and timeliness of their reports will be one of the data points I refer to when assessing their achievements and grading their performance each quarter.  

Litmus test of the manager’s ability. 

If you have to chase people to submit their reports on time, or the content they furnish is below standard, either you have not made your expectations crystal clear, or you have a problem holding people accountable.

I view this as a litmus test of your overall management ability. The same pattern probably manifests in other areas of your life. Make a stand and fix it here. 

In my opinion, if a team member is not prepared to spend 15 minutes to reflect on their performance, prioritize the next day/week, and succinctly share this information with their manager and peers, there is a performance issue lurking beneath the surface, and you need to weed it out. 

When implemented to a high standard, 15-5 Reports can bring about a keystone change in the overall performance of a team. They are a high-leverage activity that performs a lot of heavy lifting for you as a manager.

Summing up.

Daily 15-5 Reports enabled my team members to reach out directly to each other, offer support, coordinate activities, or quickly redirect a person if they were focusing on the wrong things. 

Weekly 15-5 Reports set the context for my weekly 1 on 1 meetings with direct reports. I could identify key discussion points and arrive prepared to offer targeted feedback and coaching.

Overall, everyone on the team felt better informed about what was going on. The team spent less time in meetings, and if we did meet, we got straight to the point. 

A bonus benefit. When people came back from vacation, they could spend 5 minutes reading the weekly reports and be fully up to speed with everything that happened in their absence. 

With companies running remote workforces, it can be a challenge to hold synchronous meetings. 15-5 Reports can certainly help you be a more effective manager in this scenario. 

I don’t manage teams anymore. But if I did, 15-5 Reports are one of the first things I would insist on.

How about you?

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Until next time..
Stephen