Team meetings are important activities to keep the team in sync and coordinated: team members resolve issues affecting their work and get updates of the latest news and information about their project. Team meetings should be productive and worthwhile activities.
However, team meetings can become boring and pointless, especially if there is no structure to them. People will dread going into one and will tend to avoid them. Just like any other activity, team meetings need conscious effort and good planning for them to be effective.
- How to Run an Effective Team Meeting Part 1
- Team Meeting Agenda Template Free Download Part 2
- Additional Resources Part 3
- How to Dramatically Reduce Time You Spend Creating Reports Part 4
Part 1
Here are some important pointers to consider in running a successful and productive team meeting:
- Look at team meetings positively. It’s all about mindset. If you consider team meetings as activity that are worth your time, your team members will feel the same vibe. Think of team meetings as an opportunity to spend time with the other team members and take this opportunity to coach, motivate, inform, inspire, and collaborate with them.
- Do not forget to prepare an agenda for an upcoming meeting. Most meetings are scheduled, and some people think of these meetings as just a part of work that they need to attend. They also feel that although these meetings take place, most of them do not have a clear agenda and people are there for the sake being there.
1. Involve everyone by letting them contribute into the agenda. Ask team members if there are topics they want to include in the meeting’s agenda.2. Squeeze in a little variety in the format of the meeting to keep it more exciting and interesting.3. Do not pad your agenda with so many topics that it will be impossible to discuss them all in one meeting. Leave some room to discuss other issues that may pop up during the meeting. 4. For more tips on how to write meeting agendas, check out this article. - Just like any other meeting, document the proceedings of the meeting. Assign someone to take down the minutes of the meeting and try to assign this duty to different people for each meeting. Record action items, person/s assigned, and deadlines using a meeting minutes template. You can choose a template which can be found and downloaded from the Internet or you can customize one, depending on your preferences. There is a great article here about taking down minutes of the meeting.
To reiterate, team meetings are a great venue to help the team accomplish a lot of things in one sitting. The key here is thoughtful and careful planning. However it turns out will depend on you, the manager. Make the team meeting exciting and interesting so your team members have something to look forward to. Otherwise, time spent sitting in these meetings will become wasted time which could be spent more productively somewhere else.
Part 2
Team Meeting Template: Free Download
Click Here to Download Team Meeting Agenda Template DOCX
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Templates on ProsperForms:
Part 3