By Nat Crawford
The phrase "team meeting" stirs up a wide range of thoughts and feelings. For some they look forward to the gathering of minds for collaboration. For a majority of others it stirs up thoughts of bunny trails, pages of numbers, and frankly wasted time. If the latter is true for you, let us offer you seven principles for an effective team meeting.
1) Determine what kind of meeting you need to have. Is it a tactical meeting? Tactical meetings address a problem or challenge. Is it a governance meetings? Governance meetings cover your team and its interactions. Last is a strategic meetings. It addresses where the organization is going.
2) Determine the true purpose of your meeting. Is it to give info, get info, develop options, make decisions or simply have human interaction. Knowing the purpose of your meeting will deter bunny trails.
3) Determine your desired outcomes. Once discussing the topic, know and seek an outcome. Often the outcome is not finalized, but it should take a next step.
4) Determine who should be at the meeting. Too often the wrong people attend meetings. There may be times when the whole team needs to assemble, but often only a few key players are needed. Don't worry about offending people who are not included. When they are accomplishing their own goals without the distraction of a meeting.
5) Stick to your start and end times. Time is a precious commodity and no one likes to run late in a meeting. A good trick is to set a timer on your phone 10 to 15 minutes before your meeting should end. This will help wrap things up, and possibly end early.
6) Plan on transition times between meetings. Meetings do not need to happen every week in most circumstances. Change and implementation of new ideas and services take time to take effect. In a word: patience.
7) Have accountability to ensure decisions made are decisions kept. Accountability can have a negative ring to it, but shrug it off. Having someone to check in and encourage you towards your goals is always a good resource.
Now that you have these easy 7 principles start implementing them and let us know the changes you see for your own team meetings.Labels: accountability, bunny trails, focus, on time, plan, principles, team meetings
