Work Meetings are important for the smooth running of a business. However many business leaders do not actually realise the skill in setting up and running a meeting.

Communication, and Meeting Rhythms.

There are techniques that many corporate businesses have in place when it comes to running meetings. They train their staff in the correct way to run meetings. For example, how to write an agenda. Winging a meeting is usually likely to result in the meeting failing to communicate what you need to. The reality is you cannot scale a business efficiently without having the right meeting and communication rhythm in your business. People need direction, clarity and a feedback loop. People need to learn how to work with one another.

Meetings Have Different Purposes – The Daily Huddle.

The Daily huddle is very much about quick synchronisation and should be between 5 – 15 minutes depending on the size of the team. They should be standing up if possible. A larger organisation will tend to do this within departments. A smaller organisation is likely to conduct a daily huddle as a whole. The daily huddle is about quick synchronisation. It’s finding a metric update. Where are we with our KPIs? What are the numbers saying? How did we perform? It’s about discussing what each team member will be doing that day. This is important to stop duplication and crossover in your business. This will make it less efficient.

Pay Attention to any Sticking Positions.

Listen to your team and if they are reporting being stuck on a particular task you need to work out how to free them up. If they continue to be stuck on a task they become less productive. This is where procrastination can happen and the pace of the business slows.

Weekly Meetings and the 13 Week Sprint:

Weekly meetings often happen within departments as well as an executive team and should be no longer than 90 minutes. This kind of meeting tackles updates surrounding business priorities and should have a clear agenda set out. Discussions may surround being on track to hit a 13-week sprint? A 13-week sprint is the year divided into four segments, four 13-week sprints. And it’s all about setting out what the priorities are gonna be and what it is you want to achieve. The weekly meeting deals with the priorities you have set.

Agendas:

Learn how to plan. A weekly meeting should look at priorities as well as a business metric update. How are we performing as a business? What do we need to focus on or fix? Weekly meetings need to have an agenda in place so that you come to the meeting with a purpose. It also allows your team to see what will be covered and come to the meeting prepared. It also allows the meeting to stay within the time limit.

Monthly Meetings:

Monthly meetings tackle the big issues. As a business scales it’s our opportunity as a leadership team to transfer down the DNA of the business. This meeting is usually attended by your senior team, your frontline managers and your middle managers. Monthly meetings are often best conducted off site. It stops distraction. Allocate a minimum half a day to a day, because the more time you get to spend with one another, the closer you become as a team.

Quarterly Rhythms and Two Day Annual Off Site Meeting:

Again a day off site, where you start planning the next quarter with the whole executive team. The final sort of meeting rhythm is your two-day annual off site, where you actually do your plan for the following year. A plan for the following year should be done one quarter in advance. You need a quarter in hand to prepare for the year ahead and communicate it.

The common theme here is that meetings are all about communication. If you have got more direct questions around meetings, meeting rhythms, and how they are working or not working in your business, get in touch.

“Remember failing to learn is learning to fail.”