The Best Practices For Holding Team Meetings

Team meetings are an effective communication tool and are unavoidable in work settings. You can build an effective team by holding successful meetings. And the buck usually lies with the meeting leader. It’s best to make your session engaging and interactive.

It can be an excellent way to boost your team members’ morale and align the company’s objectives. They can also be a perfect place to brainstorm and develop strong ideas. Additionally, they actively keep the employees on track. As such, the need to hold an effective meeting can’t be over-emphasized. With that in mind, here are the best practices for conducting a team meeting:

Prepare For The Meetings

It’s essential for all those attending the meeting to be aware of what’s going to happen. That can be covered in the agenda. Your agenda should stipulate the objectives of the meeting. The last thing you’d want is a low turnout because of miscommunication. It would be best if you communicated some essential aspects of the meeting in your agenda. Some ideas to consider when preparing for the sessions include the following:

Location: Most workplaces nowadays have in-office and remote workers. You should plan adequately to make both categories of workers feel included. You can have a hybrid of physical meetings and video conferencing. Such inclusivity contributes to building a better work environment. That means the meeting room must be spacious enough to accommodate the in-person attendees and be equipped with teleconferencing equipment. The room should also be well-ventilated and not congested. Again, avoid noisy environments that could easily distract the attendees. If your business premises doesn’t have such facilities, consider hiring a suitable meeting room.

Meeting schedule: Besides stating when the session starts and ends, it’s essential to have a plan that shows how you intend to run the show. The program breaks down the meeting into timed subsections to ensure every speaker and participant is time-conscious.

It’s best to ensure everyone attending the meeting has a rough idea of what the session entails. You can send the attendees an email to communicate the agenda and objectives of the meeting.

Engage Everyone In The Meeting

Avoid turning your meetings into a one-person show. Everyone in the forum should contribute. An engaging discussion should include relevant topics of conversation that’ll find solutions to most of the objectives of the meeting. You can assign every item to a specific team member, giving everyone a chance to contribute verbally.

Alternatively, you can ask questions randomly to the attendees. It helps keep them attentive. However, ensure the questions are relevant to avoid veering off the topic of discussion.

Select The Right People

Bringing the whole department to the meeting isn’t always prudent. Remember, the more attendees, the longer the discussion can be. Selecting a few department representatives would be best. In this case, you may prioritize department heads. For one, they know all that’s happening in their dockets. Again, they’re better off relaying the information to their juniors, primarily if the meetings aim at introducing new work rules.

You also don’t want to stop all the business projects for a meeting. Selecting the attendees is essential, as those not attending the conference can work on their current projects.

Assign Roles

Intelligent team leaders delegate roles to others in the meetings. If you take on all the meeting responsibilities, you might drag the conversation. For instance, every forum needs a secretary to take notes. You also need a timekeeper to keep an eye on the clock. Additionally, it’s vital to have a meeting controller. It’s not wise to leave all the responsibilities to one person. It’s not time-conscious having one person take on all the duties.

Again, the meeting can be chaotic if there’s no one in charge of controlling the forum. For instance, when contributing to an idea, someone should pick who shares the thoughts and when. From the list of attendees, you can delegate some roles. It helps in keeping everyone involved in the discussion.

Keep Time

Managing the time scheduled for the meeting is essential. The length of the meeting significantly contributes towards successful engagements. Long meetings don’t necessarily mean productive outcomes. Again, people can lose focus when you hold long sittings. If the meeting has to be long, you should have breaks. You can also provide lunch instead of letting the attendees take an extended break to have a bite. It limits the lunch breaks to a reasonable time and ensures you resume the meeting quickly.

Alternatively, you can hold brown bag meetings. They’re shorter meetings often held during lunchtime. They’re excellent for follow-up.

End The Meeting With A Recap

You should always end the discussion with a recap of the main ideas. This way, the attendees take note of the objectives discussed. Evaluate and summarize what they need to work on before the next meet-up.

You can also communicate that the next meeting will address the previous meeting’s demands. The strategy is result-oriented and helps in avoiding a backlog of ideas. If the ideas generated in every forum are implemented, you can be sure to make progress.

Conclusion

Team meetings are of significant importance in work environments. The success of a discussion session depends on preparedness and best practices. The insights above will come in handy and fine-tune your next meeting. Ensure you stick to the objectives during your discussion. Most importantly, find the best location to hold the meeting. It keeps everyone attentive throughout the session.