Consider the purpose of the meeting

Your team’s time is valuable. Think critically about the purpose of you team meeting to ensure their time is spent discussing topics that are relevant to making progress on their work. 

Most meetings can be categorized as a planning meeting, decision-making meeting, or problem-solving meeting. While a team meeting may include components of all three, communicating the purpose of the team meeting is essential for focusing the meeting and maximizing productivity.

Set an agenda

Setting an agenda for a team meeting helps to keep expectations clear. An agenda should include an outline of the meeting topic or topics. If there are problems that need to be solved or decisions that need to be made during the course of the meeting, include them on the agenda. 

The team can be involved in setting topics for the meeting, but this planning step should occur before the meeting begins. It is perfectly fine to leave meeting time for last-minute issues or topics that arise, but make sure to remain focused on decision-making and problem-solving during this time. 

Keep the time

As a meeting organizer, you should set a clear expectation for how long the meeting will take and how much of the meeting will be spent on certain tasks. If a meeting is scheduled for a half-hour and routinely lasts an hour, the meeting is not being planned and moderated effectively. 

If your team meetings are prone to running over time, set a time limit for each topic and don’t be afraid to keep to the allotted time. If a specific topic is taking longer than anticipated, suggest that the relevant parties schedule a breakout meeting for a later time to avoid including the entire team in a conversation that is not relevant to their work. Valuing your team’s time in this way will allow them to be more productive outside of the meeting. 

Tailor the meeting to your team

The landscape of team meetings has changed in the last few years. Many teams are now fully remote, fully in person, or hybrid. Avoiding technical hiccups allows for more time and focus spent on the purpose of the meeting. 

Remember to adjust audio settings before the meeting begins to ensure that at home participants are not too loud or too quiet when speaking. Investing in a seamless virtual platform can improve the meeting experience for remote team members. 

Give everyone an opportunity to present their work

An epic team meeting includes every member of the team. As the meeting host, avoid speaking the entire time and instead allow for participation from meeting participants throughout. If there are specific members of the team that rarely have the chance to speak in a team meeting, ask yourself how they can be more effectively included in the meeting. 

Maximizing participation from the team could mean speaking with employees about their work beforehand and asking them to put together a brief presentation or highlighting an employee accomplishment.

Finish strong with actions items

A successful team meeting should leave the team feeling energized and empowered to move forward with their projects and work. Capitalize on this energy by ending the meeting with action items. If a problem was solved during the meeting, make sure that employee is planning to move forward with the project. Be specific: assigning a specific action item such as finishing a report or contacting a collaborator leaves little uncertainty as to what needs to be accomplished.