Best Practices for Making Team Meetings More Meaningful and Engaging

21 Jul Best Practices for Making Team Meetings More Meaningful and Engaging

Posted at 10:44h in program, Branding by Taylor Smith 0 Comments

Team meetings have a reputation for running long and accomplishing little. When meetings are well conducted, however, they remain one of the top ways a team can be aligned and connected—even though it isn’t the most convenient. The key to the difference between people who dread attending meetings and people who value it lie in a couple of simple habits. You can make effective team meetings more meaningful and engaging from start to finish by following these simple tips:

Open With a Meaningful Check-In

The first few minutes of a meeting determine the rest of the meeting. Reach out to an easy check-in question, rather than jumping right into the agenda. This might simply be by asking what people are interested in this week or maybe a little more personal, to make connection through the Team. If you are not sure where to start, Workhuman’s check-in questions offer a long list of prompts for project updates, team bonding, and everyday conversation. A good check-in question doesn’t require a lengthy response. It only needs to open the door for the folks to show up as themselves and for the real discussion to commence.

Set a Clear Purpose and Agenda

Every meeting should have a reason to exist. Ask beforehand if they are sending the invite to share information, to find a solution or to make a decision together. Having established this goal, develop a brief action plan and distribute it to the team beforehand to prepare them. This small step alone can turn a meeting from a passive status update into an active, focused conversation. When teams know what to do they stay more engaged, as they are aware of the purpose of their visit.

Make Room for Real Participation

Meaningful meetings are rarely one-sided. When everyone in the room is not involved in the discussion, engagement quickly wanes when only one or two voices are heard. Seek to walk around the group for quick input, or specifically ask quieter team members for input before going to the next item. Open questions, which do not have only a yes or no answer, also stimulate persons to give more than a superficial reply. This creates a learned habit in staff and team members to listen and not be talked down to, making them much more likely to speak up on their own.

Keep It Focused and End With Clear Next Steps

Long, unstructured meetings are like a gas tank that has been punched out, and it is difficult to stay focused after about 20 minutes. Set a realistic time limit and stick to it, even if that means moving a longer discussion to a separate conversation later. Just before closing, spend a few minutes summarizing the decisions made and who will take what action. If this isn’t done, it can leave people feeling confused about what happened in the meeting, and this negative feeling will likely transfer to the next week. A clear close, even a short one, helps the whole team feel the meeting actually accomplished something worthwhile.

Conclusion

It doesn’t have to be a radical change in the way your team functions to make meetings more meaningful. The little things that are done that make them feel like they are heard and included, and returning to clear next steps at the end: these add up over time. People feel heard and valued for their time, and they are more likely to be present and engaged. That shift alone can turn routine meetings into ones your team actually looks forward to.