Raise your hand if you have ever walked out of a meeting no clearer than when you walked in. Keep it raised if you wish you had more time in the day to do productive work. The work you are paid to do.
It is more common than you think. Across the United States, over $25 billion is wasted every day on unnecessary meetings (source).
Business meetings are considered a necessary evil but can often feel more evil than necessary. After all, you have a job to do and sitting there twiddling your thumbs for an hour, or two, or three is not productive. So, how do you keep meetings to a minimum to ensure that employees are not wasting their time and your money?
Here are four methods to help you host a productive meeting that is worth attending.
How to host a productive meeting:
1. Set a meeting agenda
Firstly, set a meeting agenda with clear topics to discuss. This will help you stay on track, save time, and provide talking points for the team.
It’s easy to get side-tracked with a quick gossip between colleagues. “Did you hear what happened to Janet from Accounting?” and “Don’t get me started on the state of the kitchen on floor four!” It might not be those exact talking points, but you catch our drift.
Meetings can be a great way to catch up with the rest of the team and are proven to help boost morale. However, it is important to keep friendly chit-chat to a minimum or else you could leave without even touching on your meeting agenda.
2. Turn to technology
In the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak, more and more companies are asking employees to work from home. The usual face-to-face meetings are a thing of the past and people are looking for new ways to keep in contact. We are lucky that modern day technology allows us to communicate with one another without needing to be in the same country, let alone the same room.
While some people are using this time to power through work with minimal distractions, others are missing the camaraderie of the workplace. Discussing projects with colleagues who understand and can appreciate your accomplishments has major benefits, including:
- Greater job satisfaction
- Reduction in stress
- Accountability of success
- Positive outcomes for new employees
For remote workers who are looking for a way to stay connected with their team, we could have the answer. There are many virtual meeting tools on the market that allow you to host scheduled meetings. However, not every communication requires a monotonous meeting where people are on a Zoom call for hours. When it comes to keeping in contact daily with your team to ensure they are motivated for the day ahead, Teamado can help.
Teamado is much like a regular daily review at work. It allows you to communicate with your team, check-in on their progress, and ask questions or address problems – all virtually. This removes the need for a mid-day meeting that takes colleagues away from their desk and can last for longer than required.
Another great feature of Teamado is the ability to check-in using emojis. Already sounding better than a meeting, right? This nifty feature allows you to share how you are feeling with your team leader by way of an emoji. They can reach out to you personally if you are feeling stressed or anxious about a task. There is also the ability to record data trends so that overtime you can paint a bigger picture of how your staff are feeling.
Our main goal is to increase productivity and positivity among colleagues. We feel it’s important to remind people, especially in times like these when so many of us are working from home, that they can still get support.
Can Teamado help following lockdown?
At the time of writing this, lockdown is showing signs of being dropped down a notch and there is talk of businesses returning to work in the UK. However, there is likely to be social distancing in place for some time to come. This will most likely result in more companies hosting virtual meetings and daily reviews. Working from home has opened the eyes of many businesses to the benefits of virtual communication.
Teamado can also help businesses who have returned to work, are operating as normal, and are looking for a better project management system. Checking in using Teamado and sending private messages to your team will allow you to keep connected both inside and outside of the office.
3. Keep numbers to a minimum
This rule applies to any kind of business meeting or virtual communication. Often people invite colleagues in fear of them feeling left out. Honestly though, don’t invite people who are not required. You are not being rude; you are being efficient.
A little bonus tip would be to invite someone to make sure everything is chugging along nicely as per the meeting agenda. It will be their job to take notes and send a follow-up email to all attendees, which gives you the opportunity to focus on the context of the meeting with no distractions.
4. Encourage participation
One problem with meetings is that they tend to attract the more outspoken colleagues. The ones who like to voice their opinion and leave others nodding with no chance to participate. If you are the host of a meeting or virtual communication, don’t forget to address everyone and ask for their opinions. It may spark debate. But so long as the debate is controlled, then it’s going to result in a better outcome.
Conclusion
There are many methods for productive meetings both at work and virtually. A combined focus on productivity and positivity will go a long way in making sure that your meetings are necessary and that your staff leave feeling motivated.
If you would like to trial the Teamado software at no cost, then please visit our pricing page. There are no obligations to purchase the software. We are looking to support as many businesses as possible and are confident that you will love it as much as we do.