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Another staff meeting?!
Many companies today strive for a collaborative and interactive culture in order to increase employee engagement and job satisfaction. One of the benefits of staff meetings is that they can be an effective means of achieving these objectives. Successful staff meetings leave attendees with both a sense of accomplishment and a clearly defined purpose for next steps.
Some companies implement a formal meeting timetable – i.e. daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly – that is accompanied by a staff meeting agenda and predetermined staff meeting topics. Other companies opt for a more informal style with flexible themes for staff meetings and varied workplace meeting topics. Regardless of the preferred approach, all staff meeting topics should be relevant and add value to the team’s purpose and goals. Even a fixed staff meeting agenda template, a weekly staff meeting agenda template, or a weekly team meeting agenda template can leave room to incorporate creative corporate meeting ideas.
In general, team meeting topics should be geared towards the meeting purpose (note that Docket offers a free trial, so and your team can start using templates today).
For instance, the agenda for first meeting with new boss could include the following, which are intended to address any new manager questions to ask employees:
- Fun activity / Icebreaker
- Team member introductions
- Team structure overview
- Task calendar / schedule
Along similar lines, a first team meeting agenda could incorporate some of the same topics mentioned above, in addition to the following, which should cover the typical first team meeting speech:
- Team objectives / vision
- Strategy to achieve set objectives
- Contingency plans for anticipated challenges
While first team meeting ideas revolve around laying groundwork for the team and setting expectations, weekly staff meeting agenda samples for more established teams include some of the more typical topics for team meetings at work, such as:
- Prior week debrief
- Upcoming week priorities
- Project status updates
- People topics – new hires, promotions, departures
Established teams can also incorporate cool meeting ideas for interactive meeting ideas for large groups that are designed to stretch the team out of its comfort zone and help them reach new frontiers. Examples of such out of the box meeting ideas include the following:
- How can we set one another up for success?
- Recognizing existing opportunities to try new things
- Making a difference to both internal and external customers
- Building a workplace that emphasizes acquiring and utilizing new knowledge
- What situations provided opportunities to learn and grow?
- How to make the workplace more positive and productive
Wondering how to have a great staff meeting? Team celebrations and the acknowledgment of accomplishments are tried and tested methods for ensuring that team members walk away empowered and satisfied. Examples of positive staff meeting ideas include:
- Team Wins
- Appreciation from other departments
- Great team member ideas that were successfully executed
- Team members noting effective work performed by colleagues
Identifying the Purpose of a Team Meeting
As stated above, a staff meeting agenda should ensure that the meeting purpose is achieved. The purpose of the meeting can be determined by assigning it a name. Utilizing names for monthly team meetings (or whatever the frequency) can help provide clarity to team members and define expectations for the meeting outcomes. Examples include the following:
- General Staff or Team Meeting
- Meeting to discuss an ongoing project
- Meeting to discuss/resolve a current issue or problem
- Meeting to plan an upcoming initiative
- Training on new topics or regulations
- Talent development
Creating an Agenda for a Team Meeting
It is perfectly acceptable to utilize a weekly staff/team meeting agenda template; however, the outline should not be so rigid as to prevent the introduction of fresh ideas or topics. The template owner or creator should always make room for interactive meeting ideas solicited from the team. Team members often have great suggestions for fun activities to liven up meetings and ideas for how to make staff meetings more engaging. Use a meeting organizational tool like Docket to not only create your agendas but save them as agenda templates for consistency and to save you time later on. Docket offers a free trial, so you can start working with agendas today.
Creative Ways to Discuss Topics at a Team Meeting
Meetings can be fun, interactive and engaging while also accomplishing their established purpose. Introduce an element of unpredictability to keep team members guessing and anticipation levels high for staff meetings. Suggestions for creative ways to discuss meeting topics include the following:
- Rotate leadership – have a different team member run each meeting, including determining the weekly team meeting ideas and ensuring the appropriate follow up
- Invite guest speakers – Treat team members to surprise visits from company leadership or external experts on certain topics, which can also work towards knowledge building and development
- Utilize different venues – Change up the scenery and conduct some team meetings at different locations. Offsite meetings options include hotel conference rooms or restaurant meeting rooms (e.g. for working lunches), or go all out and have a team building activity at an entertainment focused destination
- Play games – Themed games / activities are an excellent way to enforce the meeting message with practical applications that will engage the team on many different levels
When trying to find ways on how to improve staff meetings or researching questions to ask your new team, creative tools can be found to help. Depending on the type of meeting, search for things like, “motivational sales meeting themes,” “new manager speech to staff examples,” “funny sales meeting themes,” or “interactive meetings ideas.”
