Team Meeting Effectiveness
Team meetings can at times seem tedious and needlessly long, but they do not have to be that way. In fact, with the proper tools in place, businesses can enjoy running effective meetings that team members actually look forward to attending. Whether you hold team meetings to discuss an upcoming agenda, customer concerns, or anything in between, these meetings can be made more lively through the right combination of strategies and resources. Ideally, team meetings should foster an environment that encourages collaboration, discussion, and a space where teams can come together and make their voices heard, both collectively and individually.
Successful meetings can look different for each business and industry, so there is not necessarily a right or wrong answer as to what’s effective and what will resonate most with employees. However, you can get a general sense of what teams are looking for by trying different things and remaining open to their ideas. Some teams prefer meeting in person. Others prefer meeting through platforms such as Zoom, and some like to keep meetings as short and sweet as possible, no matter how or where they are held. Taking into account your team’s preferences can help create a welcoming workplace that promotes innovation and cooperation.
Another advantage to hosting good meetings is that it can increase productivity amongst teams. No one wants to sit through a dry spiel, but by holding a fun, interactive meeting, you can get your team more excited about the concepts and items at hand, which can, in turn, make them more likely to want to go out there and achieve great things. It’s important to ensure that you’re providing an opportunity for everyone who wants to to take the floor and speak their mind. Hearing from more people can inspire even more ideas, which is why you should aim to make your meetings as collaborative as possible.
Business Meeting Agenda
Having a plan or agenda is crucial to holding an effective meeting. Setting a business meeting agenda beforehand can provide you with a roadmap for where to take the discussion. It can also help you outline some of the key points to touch on, prioritizing the most important elements and allowing for the less urgent matters to take a backseat. You might use a team meeting agenda template for a rough outline on how to structure your meeting.
An effective meeting agenda accounts for a number of different factors. First, it should allow for “water cooler” moments. This refers to a set period of time, usually before the meeting actually begins, when team members can chat casually and catch up with each other. These informal conversations can help build business relationships and set the tone for a collaborative meeting. Team meetings should be inclusive, so a single team member shouldn’t be dominating the whole conversation. If by the end of the meeting there are members that haven’t yet spoken, you might reach out to them to see if they have any comments to add. A project team meeting agenda in particular should include the input of everyone involved, as most projects are synergetic by nature. Whoever is in charge of the meeting should be mindful of the time and ensure that the meeting doesn’t run over its allotted time.
There are several things that could be discussed in the meeting, so be sure to account for these when creating your agenda ahead of time. You might discuss current affairs, what your business is currently involved in, and what its short-term and long-term goals are. Going over these points with your team, even if you don’t yet have all the details fleshed out, can give them a good idea of what to expect going forward.
Meeting Tools
Meeting platforms that allow for collaboration during a meeting can help boost the productivity of a meeting. If you can share common notes during a meeting, it allows for the conversation to keep moving and it aligns everyone’s notes on the meeting subject. Meeting tools and team collaboration tools are a great way to keep the process on track and help team members stay organized with their thoughts. In the case of video call platforms, these tools can also be used to facilitate the meeting itself, providing a channel through which co-workers can chat and speak face-to-face.
Docket is one such meeting productivity platform designed to make meetings more effective before they start, while they’re happening, and even after they have concluded. Docket allows teams to collaborate on agendas, set and prioritize topics, and set time limits with everyone involved, wherever they are in the world. Users can also link relevant documents and schedule recurring meetings with Docket’s agenda templates. These features can be incredibly useful for teams that are looking for tools to help simplify their meeting processes and get them running more smoothly.
Successful Meetings
Successful meetings can lead to more successful business practices. By allowing team members to connect on key goals and objectives, companies can create a workplace that’s more inclusive, collaborative and, therefore, more productive in the long run. Effective team meetings can take a number of different forms, so there isn’t a right way or a wrong way to conduct them. It can be helpful to gather feedback from your team to get a sense of what kind of meetings they feel they get the most out of and go from there.
As a general rule, meeting best practices include extensive discussion. That said, it is often best not to spend too long talking about matters that do not pertain directly to your team. Outlining an agenda or checklist is a practical way to stay organized and make sure that your meetings maintain a productive focus that yields actionable results in the end. Finally, you might consider gathering feedback from your team after each meeting to determine whether they found the meeting useful and what they might recommend going forward. Fortunately, Docket could provide your team with the tools it needs to enjoy productive, engaging meetings that remain on task while still delving deeply into the matter at hand.
Virtual Meeting Tools
Online meeting tools are essential for running effective online or hybrid meetings. Fortunately, there are plenty of virtual meeting tools and team meeting platform options available to assist you as you go about planning your next meeting. A team meeting app can also be useful for team members that prefer checking in on meetings via their mobile phones, and a meeting agenda app can help team leaders and managers organize meetings and set a clear agenda for the day.
Docket provides a suite of valuable meeting tools online, including meeting templates that can help save time and make your processes more consistent. Additionally, Docket Daily Digest emails align team members on important topics and goals for the given day or week, helping them stay focused on what needs their attention the most. Docket allows for resource sharing via your Docket Agenda, which links relevant documents and materials that are easily accessible by your whole team, not just those that are attending the meeting. With Docket, users can view meeting history items to review past meeting topics—this can be particularly useful for employees that weren’t able to attend the initial meeting.
These features and more are available to users on Docket. When choosing virtual meeting tools, it’s important to consider all aspects of your meeting process to determine your must-haves and put forth your expectations for what a meeting tool or platform should ultimately provide your company. While meeting tools should enhance your team meetings and provide additional quality features, they should not make the process more complicated. Implementing the wrong tools or tools that are too difficult for your team to use can make things harder than they need to be, which is the last thing you want when it comes to team meetings.
Weekly Team Meeting Ideas
Coming up with weekly team meeting ideas can be a task in and of itself. As a team leader, you are responsible for both conveying relevant information to your colleagues and also conveying that information in a way that’s understandable and actionable to your entire team. Brainstorming team meeting ideas can give you an opportunity to reflect on what kind of content your team enjoys, as well as how to best present business goals and objectives.
You might use a weekly team meeting template or weekly team meeting agenda template for help getting started. Docket provides templates and tips for creating successful team meetings. For example, a simple meeting agenda template might include a five-minute icebreaker at the start, followed by goal-sharing, problem-solving sprints, potential roadblocks to the goal, task assignments and commitments, and kudos and shout-outs. Of course, these steps can be arranged to fit your company’s needs and preferences, but they provide an excellent starting point for discussion. Agenda topics might revolve around company vision, project updates, project brainstorming, or client updates. Using a template as a general springboard can inspire new ideas, goals, and conversation topics for future meetings.
