Successful Team Meeting Tips for 2019

Let’s be honest – team meetings can sometimes be really boring, and one may feel like an eternity. And when they are finally over, you often end up without a conclusion or a concrete to-do list. Sometimes, we might feel as if team meetings are all about finding a real solution for the existing problems. Or updating all team members on the current state of the project you are working on. Yet, they are much needed for a team to function effectively. And, what’s more important, meetings have a massive impact on how the team members collaborate and how they get their work done. So, what are some successful team meeting tips for 2019 we can rely on?

Before we share some successful team meeting tips, let’s see some statistics.

An interesting study conducted over a decade ago by the MIT Sloan Management Review shows that meetings have increased both in length and in frequency in the past 50 years. For the executives, this means they spend nearly one day every week attending meetings. And that is twice as much as they spent on them before the 1960s.

Team meetings profoundly impact productivity among workers. And that’s a clear sign if you’re wondering how to boost productivity among your team members. However, if you don’t execute them correctly, you’re in danger of falling into the trap of losing your team member’s interest. This further means your company will lose a lot of money. According to a survey conducted by Barco, almost 51% of people in a company are asked to attend meetings that are irrelevant to them. And that’s quite serious. Because if you’re forcing them to listen to what they don’t need, they will lose their much-needed motivation and focus at work.

Not only do many of us find ourselves in a useless meeting, but we also tend to spend too much time preparing for the actual meeting. The same study from Barco shows impressive (and at the same time shocking) results. We are spending about 30% of meeting time working towards meeting objectives, 11% of the time we’re waiting for someone to arrive, and 12% of the time lost fixing much-needed tech devices. When we look at this, it’s no wonder many of us long to have shorter and fewer meetings.

What’s the secret to a successful team meeting? And which tips should we be following this year?

First, we need to point out the obvious: a universal solution for making every one of your meetings a success doesn’t exist. For a successful and productive team meeting, you need to take into consideration many things such as meeting objectives, each team member’s role in the team as well as their unique personality. However, there are some successful team meeting tips you can follow to make the most out of your meetings.

Always keep this in mind. Be crystal clear.

Anyone who has ever attended any type of meeting will tell you that people tend to lose focus from the main subject pretty quickly and end up discussing some completely irrelevant topics which were never supposed to be a point of the discussion. That’s why managers are here to lead team members through every meeting effortlessly. If you like it, you can imagine them as some sort of moderators in a panel discussion.

If you are a manager, prepare the meeting’s agenda in time and notify anyone else invited to the team meeting about it. You can even share it on Google Drive and let your team introduce themselves before the team meeting begins. This way everybody will get familiar with the topics before the meeting. You can even add an estimate of how long you expect one topic might take and evaluate your success afterward. Sounds logical?

Encouraging discussions is the best successful team meeting tip we could ever give you.

Some people are more active in team meetings than others. But let’s not put all the blame on the silent ones. One of the main reasons some people might feel less talkative than others might hide is the fact they failed to understand their role in the particular meeting. Like we have already said, make sure you have a clear agenda before the meeting even begins.

Furthermore, to boost engagement among team members, try to give them an assignment they should complete during a meeting. For instance, if a meeting’s agenda has four points of discussion, there could be four team members assigned for each topic on the agenda. That way you will ensure a proper conversation among team members, and everyone will feel included. If each team member is encouraged to participate in the meeting, they will be genuinely more excited about it when they see they are contributing positively.

Make it diverse. Nobody wants to look at the statistics during the entire meeting.

Once you’ve called for a meeting, prepared your agenda, and invited all team members, you need to figure out how you’re going to lead the discussion. Yes, we’re sure you have all the data about the current state of your project, but, nobody wants to listen to statistics and facts during the entire meeting. The key to a successful meeting is making a healthy balance between the facts you have and the feelings of your team members. What do we mean by that?

For instance, if you have a scheduled weekly meeting, you should already know what each team member was working on and what’s completed and what’s left unfinished. However, what you don’t know is how each of your team members felt while completing their weekly assignments. And this is the perfect time to find that out. You should never lose your human approach, especially when it comes to business. Now, more than ever before it’s more important to retain good workers and make them feel happy and satisfied in their work environment. And what better way for doing that than make them feel important?

Make sure you go through everyone’s week and find a solution to their problems. This way your team members will feel like they are, in fact, a part of the team.

Over 51% of employees attend meetings they find irrelevant.

Before you press “send” on your email button, be sure you invite only the people who actually need to attend the meeting. As much as we might genuinely appreciate having complete transparency in the company, that much we agree that not every piece of information is worth sharing. On top of that, too many people in a meeting can be quite overwhelming. Our concentration might decrease significantly. Or you might be at risk of entering a useless discussion that was never a subject of the intended meeting.

Meetings are good because you get an opportunity to brainstorm and find solutions for existing problems.

However, the excitement from the meeting sometimes doesn’t last long. Managers often have too many things on their minds to actually make good ideas happen. Instead, they continue using old methods in solving problems. Using the ideas team members came up with, is a great way to boost team members’ productivity and engagement. That way they will see you value their effort and that you take them seriously. So, next time your team member comes up with a solution to a problem put it into action.

One of the most important successful team meeting tips: Have a little fun.

Okay, we get it, you’re at work, and you should always be professional. But for the good spirit’s sake, you should make an occasional joke here and there. Not only will it make everyone in the meeting more relaxed, but you will also add a human touch to it. It doesn’t mean that if we are at work, we need to be strict and serious all the time. After all, we are all humans.

Make sure everyone has a clear task or a solution.

We hope you like the successful team meeting tips we have shared with you so far. An excellent way to see if a meeting was successful is when everyone knows what the next steps are. Make sure you define clear assignments for each team member and let them know what they should be doing until the next meeting. You can even ask each team member to review a meeting. That way you will have a  clear picture of what to make better next time.

Meetings are never easy, but they are very much needed in any business.  By having regular team meetings we are able to come up with new and constructive solutions for problems. If you follow our successful team meeting tips, we’re sure your team will thrive. In order to have sky-high results and increase your team’s productivity, make sure you’re using collaboration tools that have proven themselves useful in helping managers effectively manage their employees.

Ana Mladenovic

A cat enthusiast and a cupcake maniac, Ana is a freelance Content Writer passionate about HR, productivity, and team management topics. When she’s not at her keyboard, you can find Ana in the kitchen, trying to make delicious cookies.