Team meetings. Weekly meetings. Stand-up meetings. Monday morning meetings. Do you love them? You love them, don’t you? Well, you do not love them. Right?
It’s Monday. You are already pissed at the thought that it is Monday. Having the blues? The start of the workweek brings feelings of anxiety, sadness, depression, and laziness. And there you land on your office table, trying to settle down, and what you hear is, “Meeting in the conference room in next 2 minutes”. Do you fear this? Do you feel restless during meetings?
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This is not the case just with Monday meetings. When it comes to weekly meetings or daily meetings, the feeling is the same for many. There are good meetings and there are bad meetings. And bad meetings on a bad day are even worse. But first of all, let’s talk about the three main aspects that make a meeting effective.
1. Objectives are met
2. Consumed minimum amount of time
3. A sensible process for meeting
If the above objectives aren’t met in your meeting, there is something that is being overlooked and needs to be worked on. People are often susceptive that if the meetings are not effective, then what is the point of holding them?
Reasons to have team meetings
I already came across your silent question – what is the reason to have effective team meetings when they are so frustrating? You might want to get rid of these team meetings as much as possible. But for sure meetings cannot be avoided because of some pretty good reasons.
1. To provide information
– Those scheduled team meetings are a perfect example to provide the right information to all members and to make sure that all the main points are explained.
2. To allow for feedback and discussion
– Feedback is not the same as information, it is a reaction to a performance to provide more improvement. Feedback is usually carried forward with further discussions to bring fruitful results.
3. To build/strengthen a team
– A team meeting activity will develop interpersonal and organizational skills to instill a sense of togetherness and commitment.
4. To promote team collaboration
– Team meetings will not only release important information amongst the team but will also be helpful in team collaboration which is an important part of the workplace.
At ProofHub, we have weekly meetings, everybody gathers in the conference room and nobody seems to be restless. The team leaders have the power to engage and retain the staff and do it well. How do we make the meetings effective and more successful?
From our experiences, here are 5 tips to make meetings effective and fun.
1. Make a connection with everyone in the room
What happens during the meetings in your office? Is the agenda shared? The manager or team leader starts the meeting by reading the agenda and the team tilts their head down having no connection with what is being shared. Meetings are meant to be for face-to-face discussion and not for sharing data. You can share the data with the team in advance so that everyone is aware of it and discuss the things in the meetings. This will make a connection with everyone in the room and will push their minds to brainstorming. This will also save time and will keep everyone on the same page.
2. Add some fun
Meetings and fun? Do you like the combination? Yes, you can add some fun and excitement to your meetings by doing some fun team meeting activities. When a game is introduced in a meeting this will be like a surprise for the team and they will look forward to meetings in the future. A few team meeting games like brainwriting, the anti-problem, trading cards, design the box and much more will bring something out of the ordinary boring meetings. Or you can ask someone to share their success story or sponsor some engaging material. You can have weekly/monthly team awards during the meeting. These team meeting activity ideas will break up the monotony and engage everyone during the meeting.
3. Link the agenda with your mission
Effective team meetings are not meant just for discussing reports, deadlines, and motions. Many times meetings are often disconnected from the mission and vision of the company. As your company’s mission statement holds the key business objectives it needs to be fed directly into your meeting agenda. Every meeting should have a mission-related discussion to keep team members aware of what they are doing and what they have to do for the growth of the company.
4. Encourage Participation
One of the reasons that team members are not participating in the meetings is that they are not aware of the purpose of the meeting. The purpose of your meeting should be relevant and known to all the team members. This will encourage them to participate in the discussions during a meeting and be involved in the decision-making. Give each of them a chance to lead the discussion and put forward their points. If the team is encouraged to participate, they will be genuinely excited about the meetings and will see it in a positive way contributing to the discussion.
5. Make the meeting actionable
So, you have discussed every bit of strategies with the team, what’s next? At the end of the meeting give a chance to every team member to put forward their new goals in short. This will provide a recap to them and also you will know what information is retained by them. At the end of each meeting, the managers can also ask certain questions like,
“What are the tasks to be done in the next week?”
“What new strategies did you learn from this meeting.”
Ending your meeting with such simple questions will make sure that responsibilities and timelines are clear.
TOO MANY MEETINGS?
It is of no use to bounce from meeting to meeting with no productive results. You probably need to follow the ways of running an effective meeting. Follow the right structure and order, have a solid objective in mind, and a commitment and you are well on your way to great meetings. Try to avoid some of the meeting conducts to keep annoyance away from your team. You will soon gain a reputation for running efficient meetings.
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