Our Top 8 Tips To Make Your Next Team Meeting Productive

Everyone has been in a bad meeting before – boring, unproductive, and long…. One where the person having the meeting has no real interest in listening to others and is talking just to provide information (like, couldn’t this have just been an email?!)

Meetings are a crucial part of an organization, but more often than not this time is not spent collaborating, celebrating, and communicating with other team members. Meetings can and should be productive and nurture communication channels so there aren’t any “parking lot” meetings happening after.

At 912, we encourage our clients to consider getting rid of the old thoughts of what a meeting should be and see the possibilities of what a meeting can be. Meetings can be productive, insightful, celebratory, and a way for teams to rally together toward a common goal. But it takes some perspective and preparation change in the way you facilitate meetings and what role the team members play in each part of it.

So what are some tips that we can provide to help you unlock and harness the true power of an effective meeting?

First, make sure you are involved in both parts of communication – speaking AND listening.

As the leader of the meeting, your job is to be aware and prepared for the audience and communication styles of those in attendance. Many meetings are either tremendous, insightful, and productive or a complete flop with no clarity and communication actually happening. One reason meetings are flops is that the leader is not ready to speak and listen, and certainty not ready to speak and listen at the pace of the audience. The leader is attempting to persuade the audience or obtain information. Working on developing acute skills in speaking and listening keeps the audience engaged. We aren’t expecting you to be the best public speaker out there, but starting with an awareness of communication channels and how to listen can make an instant difference!

Have an agenda!

This is an imperative tool that many people don’t value – and they need to change their views on agendas ASAP! Create a clear flow of topics and distribute it to the team two days in advance. Include in it or with it any other discussion material or pre-work that needs to be completed so all members are in alignment. Most people like certainty and would like to prepare for an encounter. This also is an opportunity to assign speakers, presenters, and roles to certain parts of the agenda (which is another great meeting tip!)

Give people jobs.

Assign tasks to individuals for the meeting such as Leader, Time Keeper, Record Keeper, and Enforcer, Promise Tracker, and more. Contribution to a meeting builds community and offers a chance for people to speak – and they have the ability to really excel in communication and leadership when they have an understanding of their roles. These assignments are general and can be changed up each meeting if desired.

One of the most important roles and most time consuming is the Record Keeper, or Note Taker. The meeting notes are crucial to ensure future meetings run efficiently, participants have a reference for tasks assigned and approvals are recorded. If you find it hard to capture everything at the speed you need to, look into an automated service to transcribe meeting notes or voice record the meeting on a device so you can listen again and again. This way, you are allowing all to participate, be involved, provide insight without having to worry so much on if the notes are accurate.

Set the tone (the vibe) at the beginning of the meeting.

Break the ice with an article, video, financial feedback, or other personal story.

Why?

This way you can get present and prepare to focus on the purpose of the meeting, build trust among the team, and have a little fun while you are at it! This is all necessary to get the most out of the meeting.

Opening up the meeting in an engaging way builds vulnerability and encourages your team to show up authentically, which unlocks teams both big and small. Never underestimate how vulnerability and authenticity can connect people at the human level. This really works to open up and nurture a positive culture and emphasizes why the company exists in the first place. This is a great time to find a few awesome CROs (Chief Reminder Officers). Their job is to reiterate the importance of why the company exists and how it would like to behave to hold people accountable without confrontation. And the CROs can be used to remind people to do what they have committed to doing as it aligns with the overall mission of the company.

Ask encouraging questions to open up healthy communication channels.

Try and incorporate things like: What if…? Could we…? and Is it possible….?
This opens up opportunities for creative and open discussion points within the meeting, engages your team in high-level thinking, and prepares everyone for what comes after the meeting and in the future. Using prompts like the above work at building more critical thinking skills and bonds the team. Encourage your team to think! They have valuable input and want to find and use their voice.

Celebrate successes with your team!

Come on, who doesn’t like a party? The word implies something good! It’s truly important to focus on what you have versus what you don’t have or where you fell short. The low grades on the report card get most of the attention and that is understandable, but there is always a bright point that needs to be celebrated with your team. Poor reports are opportunities to learn and lead, and encourage leadership within your team. But don’t lose sight of the positive power that comes from recognizing a team for their hard work!

Record the to-dos and create follow-up plans (Be a CRO!)

Accountability towards the goal is difficult, and the role of the Chief Reminder Officer (CRO) is a position for everyone, not just the C-suite. The CRO works to remind people of the overall mission and goal of the team and the business overall and keeps the team aligned, Accountability is a stressful word, because it is asking someone to alter their behavior but using a CRO that isn’t dependent on seniority in an organization puts the power and leadership back into your team. Results happen after effective accountability and the reminder that we are all going in the same direction and want to help each other.

Obtain feedback after the meeting in a timely manner.

The ability of the leader to respect and accept information given to them is critical to the success of the project, the next meeting and the company as a whole. The meeting facilitator needs to ask for honest feedback from the group and be willing to look at the team’s responses objectively. Asking for feedback to grow the team and the business comes from a place of trust, love, and vulnerability – and those are characteristics that leaders of teams should work on exhibiting each chance they get! Make sure you are asking for feedback in a timely manner also – waiting too long muddies people’s minds and their thoughts so they may not be able to recall something that was really important to share.

Meetings and collaboration in settings like this really can propel a business forward and create buy-in from the amazing people you have within your organization. Understanding how an effective meeting can unlock potential and align your team all toward one common goal will help you to really understand what your team is looking for in you and in support to do their jobs better, while validating and listening to your people at a human to human level.

Opening the channels of communication within teams is something that we at 912 are very passionate about. Opening and nurturing communication channels, understanding people at a human level, and giving more than you get truly unlocks potential in any person on your team (including you!)

Discovering you and your team’s unique strengths and gifts can create a healthy, collaborative culture that allows people to show up as their best every day. We want to help you tap into the power of teamwork, harnessed at the human level.