In a team, when it comes to what each person has to do, every day is different from the last. To enable your team to move forward as one from one week to the next, one good practice is the weekly, a meeting you hold each week to summarize the events of the past seven days and to start the next week with a vision of the direction the team will take. Discover one of the recipes to make this vital meeting both effective and a pleasure.
What is the purpose of team meetings?
Weekly meetings are regular appointments scheduled at a specific time each week in the team members' agenda. The weekly meeting is an ideal team ritual to synchronize and reinforce the collective, especially when the group is dispersed, with people in the office and at remote locations.
The team meeting is the key tool of team management, it allows to share useful information for all, to take note of the past weeks and to anticipate those to come. Thanks to this exchange, the organization of the team is more fluid and effective and all members are aligned on the projects in progress. With this regular discussion, the team members maintain a friendly link between them which reinforces team cohesion!
How long should weekly team meetings be?
For a weekly team meeting to be effective, it should not exceed one hour. It is recommended that you allow 30 to 45 minutes of synchronization time once a week, although the length of the meeting will vary depending on the size of the team and the topics on the agenda.
Time control is a key factor in the success of your weekly meeting, it conditions the commitment of team members and if it is too long, it discourages participants who are quickly distracted by other topics and may be apprehensive about attending.
To meet deadlines, prioritize information. Postpone unfinished agenda items to the next week or, if urgent, schedule another meeting with the team members involved.
Rules and tips for effective weekly team meetings
To ensure the success of your weekly team meeting, remember to prepare the agenda before the meeting. It serves as a guideline for the discussion and allows you to share information that is useful to everyone. The weekly meeting is ideal for bringing up obstacles, setting up actions to move projects forward and sharing everyone's skills.
Remember to invite all the members of your team to your weekly meeting, whether they are in the office or remotely, everyone participates and expresses their point of view.
The effectiveness of the meeting depends on several factors, including time management. Make sure that the topics to be discussed do not exceed the established deadlines, it can be interesting to designate a time manager for example. Another tip is to set a more or less fixed time limit for each team member.
With these three points, you are ready to conduct an effective weekly team meeting!
Mix information sharing and team spirit
A team which communicates is a team which works well. Here are the 4 points you must discuss during your weekly to pass on information and boost your team spirit.
1. The tasks or actions carried out during the week
Each person must be able to talk about what they did over the past week. The point is not for everyone to lay out their agenda here, and even less for them to justify themselves, but to share useful information by asking the right question: “Can what I did on this subject feed into my colleagues' work and help them? ”This information will enable the team to have an overview of the material which is produced and available.
For example, imagine that a member of the team has modified a sales brochure or updated a customer file. If this information is not passed on, despite the work which has been put in there is a major risk that the rest of the team will keep using resources which are no longer up to date. Sharing what you have done gives the team the possibility of always having the right information and lets them get the most out of what each person has done.
Examples of actions carried out that may be shared by the team members: attendance at a show for a communications manager, number of sales appointments for a sales engineer, number of interviews with candidates for a recruitment manager, to name just a few.
2. The tasks or actions scheduled for the next week
The point here is for each person to know what they're doing the following week. Once again, the information shared by the team will enable the team to work together and save time. In fact, if a subject to come has already been dealt with, the person who has already worked on it can raise their hand and offer to help.
Example of scheduled tasks that team members can communicate on: a meeting planned with a major commercial partner, filming of an advertising video, finalisation of a product sheet, reception of a new employee, an action plan to be created, the next milestone in a current project and so on.
3. Suggested improvements
During the weekly team meeting, everyone must make a contribution to the team's continuous improvement. The idea is to raise sensitive points, suggest solutions and share good practice. The team can schedule a specific working meeting if necessary.
Examples of the points to discuss: clean up shared folders, make information accessible for colleagues at other locations, remember to recharge the department's tablets, share a sales argument that's not very popular, and so on.
4. Favorites
Passing on information to work together better is vital. But it's just as important to share a little of what drives us to strengthen the links within the team. With the favorites, each person can explain to the rest of the team what they particularly liked during the week.
Whether they choose to use some personal words or a nice photo, this moment provides the ideal opportunity to shine the spotlight on a colleague or a customer or to share a success. Examples of favorites: help provided by a colleague, particularly positive feedback from a customer, a sales record broken, and so on.
Thanks to these 4 very simple points, the weekly team meeting takes another dimension. The information is the same for everyone. Each person reacts to the information that might help them do what they have to. The weekly becomes 100% useful meeting time for both the individuals involved and the group as a whole.
Set the pace for your weekly meeting
Sharing information effectively is like playing a piece of music: you need rhythm! Each person must be able to talk and give the others the right level of information. Here are 4 tips to guarantee high-quality information sharing and effective weekly meetings.
1. Share the instructions in advance
If you are organizing the weekly team meeting, at the latest the day before the weekly you must remind the rest of the team of the 4 points each person needs to talk about (the tasks carried out, the tasks scheduled for the following week, suggested improvements and favorites).
If each person prepares their own contributions, the team will be able to share information which is really useful. When the day comes, everyone is ready to share their ideas and no-one wastes any time thinking about what they want to say.
2. Manage the time
To manage the time, the ideal thing for your weekly team meeting is to share a few simple rules in advance. It may be to limit speaking time (5 minutes per person) or the number of ideas on each theme (for example: 3 tasks carried out, 3 tasks scheduled, 1 point to be discussed and 1 favorite).
However, the team must still keep a certain level of flexibility in how it operates. There's no point in one member of the team speaking for 5 minutes if what they have to share can be expressed in 3 minutes. On the other hand, it may be helpful for the team to listen to someone for longer than planned on a subject which deserves to be raised.
3. Don't plan a speaking order
If you establish a speaking order in advance, the weekly team meeting could become monotonous and everyone might start doing something else once they've said their piece. For example, the team may decide that once someone finishes sharing their information they pass onto the next person at random. Some teams use this process and use a mascot to be passed on.
4. Stick to the facts!
Information does not necessarily need to be shared verbally. For the team to understand fully, if the opportunity presents itself each person can present the result of their work to the rest of the team. This may involve showing a photo (for example: a photo of a stand at a show), a model, a video or a souvenir brought back from a trip. These very visual elements bring senses other than hearing into play, will enable the team to assimilate information more easily and break up the routine. They also have the advantage that they stimulate curiosity while helping to cultivate team spirit and create a friendly working atmosphere. With these 4 points and 4 tips, the weekly team meeting becomes a moment during when everyone can really work well together.
To further and work together with full agility and for workshop facilitation, you can also consider collaborative tools which can simplify the organisation of your weekly meeting and make it run smoother. The Klaxoon Brainstorm lets your team post their ideas in advance using a color code (for example: the tasks carried out in green, the tasks for the following week in blue, the points to be discussed in yellow and the favorites in pink). When the meeting starts, all the ideas have already been expressed and in all available formats (text, drawings, photos, etc.).
The information becomes definite for everyone. One by one, on a screen or on a MeetingBoard, the participants comment on their ideas and collect the reactions from their colleagues. Everyone sees the same thing and the team follows and manages their past and future actions visually. At the end, the team is ready to work together for a new week!
Why weekly meeting is important?
Weekly team meetings facilitate the functioning of the team, because good organization is all about communication. Thanks to these regular meetings, the team's commitment is strengthened, as well as the participation of the team members, because everyone is brought into the discussion. With our tips, conduct more effective weekly team meetings and strengthen your team's cohesion! If you prefer to synchronize every day to start your day, you can have daily meetings, such as the good morning meeting or the daily scrum meeting.
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