That was the general response I got when I asked a cross-section of friends about their opinions on team meetings. These individuals work in a variety of industries, they hold various management roles in public and private sector.
I count myself as lucky that I have ‘grown up’ in a business with a great culture and have always worked to a clear structure for 1-1’s and team meetings.
In the early days of growing the Kuoni store network, we took on a lot of ex-TUI and Thomas Cook staff who had come from very ridged, disciplined backgrounds where they held a team talk every day. We learned a lot from these disciplines, Kuoni-fied them and made them part of our culture.
Team meetings may well lend themselves to a sales environment but I can’t see any reason why regular team meetings shouldn't an integral part of any team culture.
Everyone attends boring, pointless or disappointing meetings from time to time. I get it.
But to have NO team meetings – EVER?
Although, you can kind of see why when you hear some people’s experiences of them.
Here are 10 unfiltered reasons why people hate team meetings:
- They are boring and repetitive. It’s the same dull format every time with no room for creativity or real discussion.
- They are time wasting, it’s a meeting for the sake of having a meeting. No one can see the point of it.
- It’s a tick box exercise. Everyone goes around the table justifying their existence.
- No framework. No agenda. No clear owner of the meeting. No structure and no one seems to be aware of what the purpose, objective or desired outcome is in advance.
- They’re too long. Certain individuals always dominate and it all drags on.
- They’re diary consuming. There’s no time for additional meetings in the diary on top of all the other meetings not to mention doing some actual work.
- People get distracted in the virtual team meetings. This is off putting and demotivating to see others disengaging.
- You rock up having prepared your slides, you present them but no one’s really listening or cares. No one’s asks you any questions or comments and the meeting just moves on to the next person and we just go through the motions.
- It’s not collaborative. The stuff other people are saying isn’t relevant to me.
- Little output. No decisions are made or the decisions that are made aren’t followed through. Minutes aren’t captured or if they are, no one is held to account, and they aren’t referenced at the next meeting.
Oh dear. We’ve all been there when the team meeting vibe just isn’t working and you are avidly clock watching or writing down your shopping list.
Yet, I strongly feel that regular team meetings (in different formats to suit the team, the purpose and the desired outcome) are absolutely critical in order to build trust, encourage collaboration and inspire your team to challenge themselves and each other to deliver to their fullest potential.
Team meetings don’t have to be long. It’s about impact and output.
I’m not sure there’s a set winning formula for everyone and every team is different, but having made a lot of the mistakes above in the past, here are some learnings that I’ve picked up along the way:
- Weekly meetings on a Monday are a great place to start. You can chat about everyone’s weekend, reflect on performance for the prior week and get set up for the week ahead, banishing any lingering Monday blues together!
- Have an agenda and format which everyone is aware of and understands.
- Everyone should play a part.
- Create an informal environment where people feel at ease and comfortable to challenge each other and put across ideas.
- Know when to take things off line if a certain topic is dragging on or becomes irrelevant to many of the attendees.
- Always share successes in line with your values and strategy and praise your team on any wins, however small.
- For longer in person meetings, factor in breaks and provide snacks (or take turns to bring them in) if you can! (My public sector friends have to pay for their own coffee so this would be unheard of!)
- Be firm on meeting etiquette. State the importance of turning up on time, giving full attention, avoiding interruptions and committing to the full meeting time in order to get the most out of it and sticking to allocated time slots when giving updates. It’s awkward, I know, but you have to pull up repeat offenders who undermine the meeting and ruin it for everyone else.
- Agree clear actions and output, allocate owners and agree deadlines during the meeting so everyone is clear. Ensure everyone has the tools and support they need to deliver and the room to ask questions and clarify anything.
- Always follow up.
- Give feedback. Ask for feedback on the meeting purpose and format.
- Be flexible. Be prepared to continually tweak the agenda and format according to feedback or evolving business needs.
- Stick to time. Review what the right amount of time and regularity of the meeting should be. If 10 minutes once a week does it for you then go for it – it’s all about impact!
- Where appropriate, have a laugh. Encourage informal chat at the beginning and take opportunities to add humour throughout, it relaxes everyone and lightens the mood.
