Tactics For Effective Staff Meetings
Gabby Rincon
Helping professionals improve their English to advance their careers | Business English Coach | Job Interview in English Preparation?
“Time – the one asset none of us are ever gonna get more of.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
Meetings are a necessary part of every organization. Unfortunately, meetings can have a bad rap—and often for good reason. A poorly run meeting can be unproductive and, thus, a waste of employees’ valuable time.
Here are 6 tips for ensuring that each meeting you lead is effective and serves its intended purpose.
1- Come prepared
Every meeting should have specific goals, whether it’s sharing crucial information, brainstorming about a challenge facing your organization, or planning an event. If you’re leading the meeting, you should have an agenda. Whether you share this with all attendees or not, it will help you stay on task and make sure you don’t miss anything important that you wanted to discuss.
Once you've determined your agenda topics and meeting schedule, communicate with your team if they need to prepare anything in advance. This is a fantastic opportunity to give team members a chance to lead discussions, share important updates, offer suggestions, and come away with action items for the next meeting. Still, they won't be able to do that if they're not prepared.
2- Keep meetings as short as possible
Don’t rush through important issues, but don’t let meetings drag on longer than necessary. If you schedule a meeting for an hour, then make sure you finish within that time. This shows the other attendees that you respect their time enough not to waste it or assume that your meeting is the most important thing on their schedules. Plus, with studies showing that people have attention spans of only 20 to 30 minutes, it may not be beneficial to have a long meeting.
3- Use creative tactics to keep staff engaged
- Tell a joke or fun fact. As they say, laughter is the best medicine, which is why starting off with a joke can actually make attendees feel more comfortable and relaxed.?
- Pass the baton on to someone else. Sometimes having the same speaker in every meeting can get stale. Before the staff meeting, choose a team member who will lead the meeting. You’ll provide he/she with the agenda and materials as needed.?
- Try a fun activity. One ice-breaker game many corporate companies love is Kahoot, Wordwall, or Quizalize? All it takes is your smartphone device, one code, and a bunch of engaging questions to make your team laugh. This alone can promote excitement for future meetings.?
4- Get everyone involved
You want everyone to have some ownership of the issues you’re discussing, and if you’re the only one talking the whole time, that can be difficult. Staff may mentally check out or struggle to connect their roles and responsibilities to the meeting topics if they’re not engaged.
Always pay attention. Don't be a distracted facilitator; stay off your phone or computer and be fully present at the meeting.
5- Embrace opportunities for conflict
When you leave the room, everyone should be on the same page, but staff meetings should be a safe place to disagree. This will show new staff that it’s okay to disagree in a healthy, respectful manner, which makes them more comfortable speaking up. New staff may have perspectives from the outside that you didn’t have before.
Ask the right questions. Spend time-solving problems. Keep things relevant. Make sure any action items from the meeting have a clear owner.
6- Genuinely consider everyone’s opinions
Even in an environment where staff is not punished for speaking up, they may stop providing input if their opinions are never truly considered.
Always include some element of praise in all-staff meetings.
This shows your staff that their work is seen and appreciated, and they’re encouraged when they are highlighted in that way.
Ask attendees how staff meetings can be improved upon in the future.
领英推荐
WEEKLY VOCABULARY ??
??Icebreaker: a game or joke that makes people who do not know each other feel more relaxed together.
??Struggle: make forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint or constriction.
??Unproductive: not producing or being able to produce large amounts of goods, crops, or other commodities.
??Suggestion: an idea or plan put forward for consideration.
??Facilitator: a person or thing that makes an action or process easy or easier.
PHRASAL VERBS ?
??Bring forward: to change the date or time of an event so that it happens earlier than planned.
“The meeting has been brought forward to this Friday instead of next week.”
??Draw up: to prepare something official, for example, a contract, in writing.
“Now that we have agreed on the details, I’ll draw up the contract and send it to you tomorrow.”
IDIOMS ??
??Run a tight ship: a well-managed organization.
??On the same wavelength: think similarly, and understand each other.
Related Articles:
??Organizational Climate https://www.englishpriority.com/organizationalclimate/
??How to ask for people’s opinions https://www.englishpriority.com/how-to-ask-for-peoples-opinions/
??Business Communication https://www.englishpriority.com/business-communication/
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