Work Smarter Not Harder, with Better Team Meetings

At the heart of exceptional team performance is a rhythm of tightly run daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual meetings – all of which happen as scheduled, without fail, with specific agendas. These meetings ensure that we focus the team on what’s important, and facilitate collaboration for problem solving and innovation.

You’d be amazed at the progress you can see when communication flows openly and consistently.

So how do you work towards ‘better’ meetings?

1. Schedule more, not less

Meetings are a routine that will set you free. While this sounds counterintuitive, it is the fastest way to ensure progress.

By increasing the frequency of touch points, you can break goals and tasks into bite-size pieces, so they become more relevant and achievable. This cuts down conversation and puts the emphasis back on action.

I team members are required to report daily on activities, in a peer setting, accountability soars, and so do outcomes. You will also avoid unresolved problems and discontentment forming in the workplace.

2. Make sure your team knows why they are at each meeting

Clarity enables progression so you should give each meeting a name and define it’s purpose. The more concrete the goals, the more powerful the outcomes. Whether it is your weekly team meeting, staff review, project meeting, marketing meeting, make sure the right people are present and that they know what is required of them. A written agenda, including time frame, will help. Send these out prior to the meeting so everyone involved has a chance to review and think about how they can best contribute to the discussions.

3. Always allow for response time and extra business

Good meetings will generate discussion, which creates opinions and leads to more business opportunities. The goal of peak efficiency and productivity shouldn’t be at the expense of vital organic conversations and the ideas that spark because of them. Allocate time for these, but be specific about how MUCH time is given over. You may discover that the best thing to do with a particularly juicy subject is create a committee or working group, who meet separately and report back.

4. Create meeting etiquette and encourage the team to self-monitor

A good rule of thumb is not to allow too much comment on each meeting item. You’ve allowed for response time but don’t go over that time otherwise the meeting starts to become less productive. Relevant points can be raised but any strong, divergent subjects that come up should be referred to extra business or tabled for a separate meeting.

5. Appoint a chair, time-keeper and a note taker

Even simple meetings require structure. Assigning these three roles will set you up for success each time you begin a meeting.

• A chair – will keep the meeting moving so that you don’t spend too much time on a particular topic, ensuring everyone is heard, but that the course of discussion does not stray.  
• A timekeeper – allows everyone else to focus on the meeting without stealing glances at their watches. 
• A note taker – frees other team members so they can listen and contribute – without being distracted by making their own notes. Everyone will also be working from the same notes to avoid confusion when following up tasks afterwards.

It’s best to rotate these roles so you build skills within your team, and no team members start to feel put upon, burdened, or dismissed.

Learn to get more out of your meetings.

This essential part of your business operations ensures good communications, happy staff members, aligned team goals, and super accelerated productivity.

If you are looking for assistance in planning meetings, setting agendas and getting the most out of team meeting time, consult Business Benchmark Group. We are one of Australia’s top coaching businesses, who have helped countless trades and construction businesses in Australia and New Zealand achieve better results. exercises have one goal: to make it as easy as possible for our ideal customers to buy from us. The more you understand the who, where, what, when, why and how of your target market, the better you’ll be able to shape your business to calling them out, attracting them, and securing them as your clients.