Running Better Meetings

Last week’s issue: Appreciating your Squad

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Today at a Glance:

• Running better meetings

• Top tips to ensure they’re more effective

• How to reboot them when they go stale

• Quick tip to give everyone time back

• A book on better meeting structure

• Sometimes you need a meeting about a meeting

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Team meetings can be a challenge, and keeping them interesting and focused is not always easy.

But when they’re done right they are vitally important.

They provide alignment, allow team members to contribute, and most importantly encourage innovative ideas and solutions to big problems.

There are a lot of objections to meetings but when best practices are followed they bring tremendous value.

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Part of a Leader’s role is to join meetings and ensure productive conversations take place and important decisions are made.

This next statement sounds horrific but you may need to do it.

Part of the reboot might involve hosting a meeting about a meeting….

You cannot turn up and hope for the best.

You need to speak through how you want your meeting to run so when it comes to showtime everyone is happy with the format.

Neglecting your meetings will cause them to run stale.

Do this instead:

1/ Purpose - ensure every meeting has a purpose, why are you and your team downing tools and connecting together?

Ensure the purpose and goals of the meetings are clear from the outset.

2/ Icebreakers - an icebreaker exercise or trivia is a great way to start the meeting off and get everyone talking.

It also encourages a bit of vulnerability and openness within the group which is great for building trust and team relationships.

Some good ideas for your team icebreaker:

• What did you learn last week that you wanted to share?

• What is one thing you’re grateful for in your life right now?

• What one resource has helped you tremendously that you could share?

• What one thing have you been putting off that you’ll commit to right now?

3/ Meeting Norms - agree with your team on what the expected behaviours and standards are for the meeting.

These are important to ensure alignment and consistency.

Some examples:

• Arrive on time

• It’s about getting it right, not being right

• Come with an open mind

• Don’t be multi-tasking, be 100% focused on the meeting

• Challenge your colleagues with the right spirit and intend

• Treat everyone with respect and dignity

• Actively Listen

4 Agenda Document - you should have a shared agenda document that all team members have access to and can add items to.

Everyone should review ahead of the meeting so they know what’s been tackled.

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5/ Who’s Meeting - the meeting should not be the Leader’s meeting, it’s the team’s meeting.

The leader or the host is just there to facilitate the meeting and ensure the agenda is being covered and completed within time.

When it becomes someone’s meeting, the team loses interest.

6/ Participation - as the meeting is not your meeting, ensure you’re inviting people to speak and participate.

You may ask team members to cover specific topics or even invite special guests.