Businesses across industries recognize the value of teamwork. Teams come in various forms, such as globally dispersed and remote teams or structured across departments and functions. With the amount of time spent in team meetings, they must be worthwhile! Let’s explore the value of productive meetings and review practical steps to transform these sessions in your workplace.
How many of these dynamics have you experienced in team meetings in the past week?
- You came to “represent” but had no real idea of what the meeting was about (lost)
- You had a marginal connection to the topics discussed (boring)
- You were without authority needed to impact items being discussed (impotent)
- You felt ignored when you offered input or shot down by others (discounted)
- You shared ideas, yet they could not compete with other conversations happening simultaneously, either around the table or in private online chats (unnecessary)
- You didn’t speak up and no one noticed or invited your input before it ended (invisible)
- You accomplished more in that meeting by covertly multitasking (productive!)
At the speed of business today, we don’t have the time or energy to waste repeating these scenarios. An Otter.ai study found that companies waste approximately $25,000 per employee annually when they sit in on meetings they felt were unnecessary. Notice it is not that the person didn’t need to be in the meeting, nor that the person didn’t have anything of value to contribute. Their perception — and perception is reality — was simply that teams could achieve most objectives more effectively through other means. You know many of these: email, group chats, team channels in communication platforms, message boards, quick hallway catch-ups and so on.
The extremely practical reason to fix team meetings is the genuine hit to “the bottom line.” Overall, the Otter.ai study found that firms with 100 workers would save almost $2.5 million per year by eliminating unnecessary meetings, while companies with 5,000 employees would save more than $100 million annually.
Importance of Team Collaboration
The strength of a successful business often lies in its people. Facilitating opportunities for collaboration — such as team meetings — allows companies to access the full extent of their team’s skills. Here’s an overview of the key benefits of meeting with co-workers:
- More diverse feedback: There is often more than one way to solve a problem — inviting different perspectives allows you to find the best solution to an issue.
- Increased learning opportunities: Meetings provide the space for employees to share their ideas and knowledge. Other members can learn from these insights, ultimately growing their knowledge base.
- Boosted productivity: When multiple minds tackle a challenge, there’s often a faster result. Sharing the workload helps to complete tasks more quickly.
- Improved communication: Team meetings allow all members to be in the same place at the time — either virtually or in person. Being together opens up more communication channels, making problem-solving or fostering a more supportive culture easier.
- Enhanced accomplishment: Collaborating on a project and achieving a collective goal is a powerful way to bond with your co-workers. Group wins are an effective way to keep everyone motivated.
How to Make Meetings Worthwhile
Since it’s clear that ineffective meetings are a waste of company resources, we need to do more to ensure each group session is productive. Discover nine ways to ensure more worthwhile meetings that support team collaboration.
1. Meet With a Purpose
Decide and communicate why there needs to be a meeting. Often, the purpose of a meeting is for a group to meet and discuss ways to achieve certain objectives. This effectively makes written communication less expedient. By establishing the “why” for a meeting, those in attendance will know how to progress to ensure the desired outcomes.
2. Invite the Right People
A great guide for who should be in the meeting is a RACI chart:
- Who is responsible for actions on the topic, initiative or project? This should be one person — two if you must, but no more — and they should be “at the table.”
- Who is accountable for deliverables? This may include many people and they should gather with the responsibility to provide updates and seek alignment.
- Who will be consulted regarding the team’s actions and decisions? This could include several necessary SMEs or managers of team members. They might attend some critical decision-focused meetings but will normally review meeting minutes and then offer written or verbal insights to the team through a messenger from the relevant groups.
- Who needs to be informed of the team’s progress? These people do not need to attend meetings but someone present must keep them updated. Their input, if needed, is normally shared with the Team Leader between meetings.
3. Set an Agenda and Send It in Advance
Send the agenda at least three to 24 hours in advance so people have enough time to prepare. Allot a time limit to each item so later items aren’t overlooked or postponed. Identify who will report on and contribute to each item. Some larger-scale meetings, such as board meetings and annual strategy planning, will require the agenda to be sent days or weeks ahead of time. Setting expectations for success empowers ownership and motivation to come prepared.
4. Follow With Minutes and a List of Actionable Items
This responsibility can be rotated through the team members or by a well-organized member who enjoys this task. They confirm details such as who will report, on what, how and by when. They’ll also specify whether the response will come in the form of an email, internal channel or something else.
Providing a written account of the meeting helps summarize the main points and hold people accountable.
5. Keep the Meeting Brief
Meetings don’t always need to be the same length — just the time necessary to accomplish the objectives of the agenda. By cutting out topics, updates and questions that are irrelevant to people “in the room,” the group can resolve or move forward on specific items for which they have responsibility, expertise and passion.
6. Start Meetings With Reports on Actionable Items
If it was important enough to assign at the end of the previous meeting, progress likely cannot be made without an update. If the action was not completed, realign and reassign the next steps after team members have offered explanations.
7. Share the Top Three Action Items for Each Week
Specifying action items is particularly helpful when many team members are working on one or very similar items. The team or project leader can keep people focused, aligned and productive between meetings with one top-of-mind list for all.
8. Celebrate Successes
The key to sustaining engagement, passion and progress is a personal sense of fulfillment. Receiving recognition for good work, especially if it required herculean effort or high levels of sacrifice, helps members feel appreciated.
9. Empower Your Team Members to Run the Meetings
Appointing a different employee to run each meeting develops leadership in your team members. In addition, it cultivates ownership and accountability, ensuring the meeting is important, fruitful and enjoyable.
As employees are likely to have different approaches to meetings, you may want to introduce a template to provide some structure to each group session.
Boosting Productivity in Team Meetings
Time is a valuable resource and as such, you need to ensure each meeting is productive. Here are some effective tips to get the most out of your group sessions:
- Allow virtual attendance: Many people track the time of a meeting from its start to end time. However, this doesn’t take into account travel time, which, in some cases, could be as long as the meeting itself. Enabling people to join meetings virtually limits disruptions in their day.
- Change meeting formats: Periodically changing the structure of your meeting prompts attendees to be more alert. For example, if you usually open with an agenda, followed by a presentation and questions, you could switch up these stages for a fresh format. When people are more focused, they’re likely to give more thoughtful responses.
- Plan break times: If a meeting is likely to last a few hours, it’s a good idea to structure break times. Giving attendees a chance to stretch their legs and grab a refreshment helps them rejoin the meeting with more energy.
- Ask for feedback: After each meeting, provide a survey for team members to share ways in which meetings could improve. A new approach may help to streamline future discussions and reach goals more quickly.
Strategies for Increasing Engagement
The purpose of a meeting is to share ideas and brainstorm ways to achieve business goals. However, some team members may be more reserved than others, making it challenging to ensure everyone contributes fairly. Here are some suggestions to inspire participation in meetings:
- Use icebreakers: By starting your meeting with an icebreaker, you help employees feel more comfortable expressing their opinions. Icebreaker examples include playing a short game or asking a serious or silly question, prompting everyone to get involved from the onset.
- Recap the rules: Employees are more likely to engage in meetings if they feel respected. Reminding your team to listen politely, raise their hand or follow other meeting etiquette creates a safe space for discussions.
- Provide visual aids: Compiling a printout with relevant graphs or pictures makes it easier to understand complex topics. When employees have a better idea of the subject matter, they are more equipped to share their advice.
- Make time for small talk: Asking employees about their family or life highlights helps to establish a welcoming atmosphere. The Harvard Business Review recommends listing a time for this on the agenda so teams see the value of personal discussions.
- Appoint a facilitator: By appointing someone to call on people for feedback, you ensure that everyone has a fair chance to contribute. Similarly, a facilitator can move the conversation along if certain team members are dominating the platform.
Leveraging Technology Tools for Better Meetings
Whether you conduct your meetings in person or virtually, several tech tools can help your team get the most value from each session. Here’s how to leverage technology for more productive meetings:
- Share meeting documents online: Email, SharePoint or Google Docs allow you to conveniently distribute the agenda, minutes or visual aids to team members. This saves paper and printing costs and reduces the possibility of members forgetting their hard copies before the meet-up.
- Choose an appropriate platform: Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Skype and Zoom are popular platforms for virtual meetings. Consider the number of participants, meeting length and the features you will need when selecting a platform.
- Specify ways to engage: Successful meetings rely on team member engagement. Specify if you want attendees to use the Raise Your Hand feature, contribute to a poll or write in the message box before starting the meeting.
- Harness artificial intelligence (AI): From creating more effective agendas to collecting and segmenting data, AI helps to optimize team meetings. You can even implement an AI chatbot to help field questions and obtain feedback.
- Store data on the cloud: Meetings often involve presentations, training videos or other media. Choosing a cloud service helps you organize and store meeting data so team members can easily access it after the event.
Interested In Learning More?
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