Is this your reality?
You arrive promptly for your team meeting and watch in dismay as the rest of the team come straggling in late, some with muttered apologies, some continuing prior conversations and others bemoaning their workload.
You did send out an agenda, but few have looked at it and it isn’t always clear what is expected for each topic. Then one of your team hijacks the meeting with an issue that they think is important – they can’t seem to leave it alone.
Sound familiar? We all know how painful and unproductive poorly conducted meetings are. An important question for all teams to ask is whether the team’s meetings and conversations are producing a level of performance that will ultimately meet (and exceed) their customer’s expectations.
Teamwork is in the Conversations
We need firm agreements and commitments from the team to achieve what is required. But where do these commitments come from? Right, you’ve guessed it, from conversations. Conversations that are structured in such a way to address the concerns of the moment.
This raises a few questions that we will deal with in future blogs such as:
- What is the priority for the team at this moment? What does it really need to focus on?
- How will the team address or deal with the priority? Put another way, what conversation is needed?
- What is the most effective way of having the required conversation?
- How will we ensure that we come to agreement, make a decision and then schedule the necessary actions to move forward effectively.
The Team Meeting
Now back to our team meeting. We need to know why we are having the meeting. What is it designed to achieve? It might be scheduled to communicate important information to the team (although it is worth questioning whether a meeting is the best way to achieve this), or to review the status of team actions (team members will need to be prepared for this), explore options, make a decision or solve a problem. It may be more than one of these.
Whatever the reason, all meetings need the following to be effective:
- Meeting purpose. What is the meeting designed to achieve? What outcomes or results are expected. You wouldn’t think about using Google Maps without having a destination in mind.
- Agenda. An agenda isn’t just a list of topics. It states the nature and outcome of each item and outlines the process for achieving it. Think ‘FTSOW’ – ‘For the Sake of What?’ are we including this topic. I was once a member of a very successful team that included the FTSOW for each agenda item. It helped remove unnecessary topics from the team’s agenda and assisted team members in preparing more effectively for the meeting.
- Meeting standards. These are an agreed set of expectations the guide how meetings will be held. Some areas that might be considered are:
- Attendance – required or optional. The expectation to inform the team leader ahead of time if unable to attend, and perhaps the need for substitutes. The responsibility to find out what was agreed or discussed if absent from the meeting.
- When meetings will start – on time or when everyone is present. A tremendous amount of time is wasted of people who turn up on time in waiting for latecomers or trying to find out whether someone is attending or not. Having a standard around this will help.
- Use of laptops, smartphones etc during meetings.
- Level of preparation and contribution expected during the meeting.
Having an agreed set of standards enables you to refer to them as needed. ‘We did agree not to use laptops during the meeting, do you have a pressing need to do so now?’
We’ll say more in future blogs about the role of the team leader in orchestrating the conversations of the team, but their role in the team meeting is to conduct the meeting in a way that will enable it to achieve its objectives.
Learn more
Richard J. Hews is a Leadership and Change Coach, working with leaders and teams seeking a performance edge. He can be reached at 860-857-3588 or richard@pathwaysofgrowth.com.
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