Our team meetings are a mess and a total waste of time for team members. We meet every two weeks for one hour. There are six team members. Most everyone is late to the meeting so we don’t start until about 15 minutes after the meeting is scheduled to start. Then the meeting consists of going around the table with each team member updating the others on “what’s happening.” The information is not useful and normally focuses on the past not the future. There is typically no discussion within the team about these topics. What can we do to make these team meetings productive?

The Team Doc Says…

There’s nothing worse than a team meeting that feels like a total waste of time. It sounds like no one has seized the opportunity to be the meeting leader to ensure your meetings are productive. For a high level overview on the components required for a productive team meeting, take a look at Team Meeting Guidelines.

Here are some steps you can take:

• Determine your meeting purpose — Why are you having the meeting in the first place? What is the expected outcome of the meeting?
• Determine who will lead the meeting — The meeting leader keeps the meeting focused on the meeting purpose and keeps the process of the meeting moving along. You don’t have to be the “boss” to be the meeting leader.
• Have an agenda — Determine the items your team will discuss in advance of the meeting. Turn that into an agenda with time allocations. This will help you focus the discussion and keep your meeting on track.
• Capture action items and follow up — For any discussion that turns into action for a team member, capture that item and put a deadline on it. Don’t forget to follow up at your next meeting on all agreed upon action items.

That should get your team started on the right track. For more in depth instruction on how to have really good team meetings, get your copy of How To Conduct Meetings That Achieve Results today.