Have your team meetings become a talking shop or – worse – an opportunity to vent and ‘put the world to rights’?
“It’s very easy to lose sight of the purpose of team meetings, and even to avoid holding them at all, which is a huge missed opportunity,” says Amy Scoular, Impellus Leadership and Management Trainer. “Team meetings should be a regular part of the working week as a way to share information, problem-solve, make decisions, track progress, and re-focus on short, medium and long-term goals.
“This is even more important when many teams are remote or hybrid remote, which can make it more challenging to promote and maintain positive and productive teamworking.”
Discover our five top tips for managing employees in a work-at-home culture.
Questions, questions
“It’s really important to reflect as a team on how you work together and where improvements can be made,” says Amy. “By using probing and thought-provoking open questions you can encourage your team to think more deeply and consider different perspectives and approaches.
“Below is a list of potential questions that can be used in team meetings. It’s best to stick to a maximum of four per meeting.”
- What has helped us to work well lately?
- What has made things more difficult for us?
- What has caused delays?
- What team operating rules/fixed procedures do we have?
- Are they still useful or should we change some of them?
- What could we do to help us work faster?
- What could make us more efficient?
- What can we learn from other teams?
- Are we doing unnecessary tasks?
- Are we making the best use of our resources (time, money, space, information, people skills and creativity)?
- What successes have we had?
- Where have we failed, or are we failing? Why? What can we do about it?
- What problems might arise soon?
- What can we do now to deal with future problems before they arise or become serious?
“Don’t spring the questions on your team,” says Amy. “Share the questions you are going to use in advance of the meeting so everyone has a chance to think about them. During the meeting, make sure everyone is given the opportunity to have their say and contribute their views and opinions.
“The end result should be a list of positive action points following a discussion that has made everyone feel as if their contribution is valued.”
You may find the following one-day courses useful:
Managing and Appraising Performance
Delegation and Time Efficiency
