As Hayley Mills sang, “Let’s get together, we can have a swinging time,” and, dependent on the style of meeting you are organising, some of the venues designed to foster team-building may give you just that opportunity!
Whether informal activities or more traditional board room or conference style events, all business meetings have certain key ingredients. They allow time for networking among staff, provide an opportunity to share ideas, emphasize teamwork and inform employees and management alike of new developments within the company or among clients.
Information sharing is an important key ingredient, meetings held within the office among staff, or meetings between a company and its client, provide an opportunity to share information. This could be as simple as sharing updates on financials or recognizing new employees to more complex issues, such as contract negotiations, new client presentations or addressing problems with an account. An actual meeting pinpoints a time and place to have in-depth discussions without other distractions or work getting in the way.
Decide who is to lead the discussion and structure your meeting carefully by setting an agenda which should be circulated prior to the meeting. Creating an effective agenda is fundamental in planning a productive meeting, as is a clearly stated objective. Make sure to communicate this objective prior to the meeting so that all participants can prepare in advance. This simple step will assure that the meeting can benefit all parties involved and accomplish its goal.
This will help to ensure that the valuable time set aside is used productively. An agenda also ensures that everyone understands the rules of the meeting - waiting until the end of presentations to ask questions or leaving discreetly if an immediate need must be addressed, for example. We can forget that the participants have as much responsibility to make meetings time-efficient and effective as the person chairing the meeting.
Poorly structured business meetings can be a serious drain on company productivity, and the more staff involved the greater the loss of output. Therefore it is worthwhile ensuring that only those who really need to be there for their contribution are present, others concerned having had an opportunity to raise any issues contained in the agenda previously and memos can always be circulated afterwards.
Business meetings can also provide the perfect team working environment, be it among staff or between client and account manager. It provides a forum with which to set team goals and brainstorm ways to meet them, considering input from everyone in the meeting, versus just one person. When the meeting is between client and company rep, the teamwork may happen in the form of feedback, when the client may suggest certain things, to which the other party may respond and go back and forth in a dialogue until a consensus is reached.
Meetings these days are no longer just face-to-face, the use of technology – conference calls, video conferencing, online document sharing or webinars – is on the rise and if, planned well, virtual meetings can be as effective as face to face. So given the time that can be taken up and the ease of communication via emails and social media, do we need to hold staff meetings at all?
Yes we do. We are social beings, yet are increasingly spending time alone at the workplace since much of our work is done on the computer. Also, with flexible work locations and schedules becoming increasingly common, it can be challenging to schedule opportunities for face-to-face time with colleagues. When people experience stress as various deadlines loom, often the first thing to get pushed aside is the staff meeting.
Regular staff meetings serve to remind employees that they are part of a team and that there is more going on than their own immediate concerns. Meetings provide opportunities for mutual support and collaboration, get people talking and problem solving together. It can be surprising how a quick meeting can help alleviate stress and re-energize the group.
Another benefit of holding regular staff meetings is to create an opportunity for different layers of the organization to align around current priorities and organizational goals. A common complaint is that employees don't have enough access to information. Regular staff meetings can mitigate this. As for managers, it is a great way to touch base with your staff and get a "quick pulse" about how your team is doing.
So indeed, “let’s get together” as often as your business allows, schedule time for regular meetings in the office and away from base, your company productivity and team morale will all improve.