How to make your team meetings the highlight of the week

This started off as a LinkedIn post that reached character limit. One thing I have found I am quite talented at is making dull things very fun. Some meetings can be dull and very much dreaded so I have written this short guide on how I have made team meetings the highlight of the week. .

Do you want to make your team meetings so exciting they are the highlight of the week? For anyone who holds meetings I would love to share with you my top tips for making them more engaging. I have avoid unnecessary meetings like the plague, they can fill up your diary and often the added benefit is minimal.

I have a very short attention span and I think meetings should be catered towards short attention spans and this is how I do it.

1. Whether virtual or in person, always be the first to arrive and welcome everyone in by name with enthusiasm. If in person have snacks ready in the centre of the table.

2. If there is a white board put a positive quote of the week up, and set the environment that this is a positive space.

3. Have music as people enter which is high energy and gets everyone pumped up.

4. When everyone is there - Welcome everyone with a big hello and say why you are excited for the meeting or a big outcome that you need the teams help for today in achieving.

5. Have a strict agenda that everyone knows about, stick to the time - as meetings which run over cause energy to drop. I recommend 50 minutes. Send the agenda out in advance and ask everyone if there is something they want to add.

6. Spend the first part of each meeting letting everyone have their say. Everyone has 1-2 minutes to quickly go around and tell a) something new they experimented with and whether it was successful or failed (failures encouraged too!) b) something new they wanted to experiment with in the next week c) something they had recently learnt from someone else in the team

7. As there is a lot to cover in meetings send a survey out in survey monkey to everyone before hand for larger topics. This allows you to gather everyones thoughts, allows everyone to mull over the challenge, and then discuss the results of the survey at the meeting. This can increase conversation quality and cut conversation time. Make sure there is a clear question and outcome desired in the conversation.

8. Keep meetings positive. If there is something negative with a team member make sure it is discussed prior in a team meeting. Spin negatives into a positive - e.g. we are down on our targets so these are the new exciting strategies we have to rectify the situation.

9. Don't let someone dominate conversation and facilitate so everyone has a voice and is brought in

10. Each team meeting let one member from a team feed back to the group as to what they and the rest of their team have been up to for the last month and their plans for the next month for 5-10 minutes. (if they wanted any input or discussion this would be a separate part of the agenda.) This individual should not necessarily be the team leader.

11. Do team shout outs. Any great news, great progress, or results will be shouted out here.

12. End on a high note. The quick movement through the different aspects will keep the energy high. Put the music on as people leave, remind of any CTAs, thank everyone for coming and mention what you specifically enjoyed from this meeting.

12. Meetings should be structures to a. welcome everyone in with enthusiasm. b. go around the room and allow everyone to share for 1-2 minutes their experimental innovations and learnings c. Key challenges of questions where the group feedback is needed (for large questions use survey results), d. allow one team member to update the group on what their team has been working on over the past month e. give success story shoutouts f. end with a bang

I hope you found this helpful. Please let me know what your top meeting tips are