How to Run Team Meetings Efficiently
I’ve shared my approach to conducting meetings. I want to give details about the one with my team.
We were a digital-first team. C-level and Management Board had great expectations about our deliverables. The tasks we had – chatbot launch, mobile app relaunch, fixing logistics-related customer issues of e-commerce, the crowded roadmap of digital apps – required a huge effort. Due to a very loaded agenda, the team could not relate as well as they could not see each other. That was stressful for me, not feeling OK, not getting enough information to make a decision promptly. The meeting habit of the organisation was dreadful, bigger than us individually and created a big issue for time management and team morale. I had to solve my own problem.
Steal with pride and give credit
I copied the daily stand-ups of scrum methodology. As mentioned, we participate while standing, not sitting. We do not have any distractive items at hand, even no papers or pencils. Since we do not have a common roadmap, there is no board on the wall to discuss on.
We meet not in the middle of open-office but in a meeting room, to get focused.
The stand-ups are somewhat fun. We are using a soft yellow stress ball to do turn talking by passing it, and also to get comfy while talking, by squeezing. If one does not have an update, he or she can pass the ball or tell a joke or do whatever. I adopted the talking structure based on our requirements as a team:
- What are my accomplishments today?
- What obstacles do I have?
- What will I do tomorrow?
- What do I need from my teammates?
- And how can my manager serve me to accomplish tomorrow?
As you see, no stories, no drama can breed here. I can feel only the perseverance of a responsible individual.
Each attendant is all ears to others. They are involved in the dialogues.
We are in the present moment, neither in the past nor in the future.
By the first week of those meetings, I wanted feedback from them to iterate according to the needs I could not capture. None shared negative comments to me, other than the yellow ball making us addictive to squeeze 😂 One more: They do not like standing up! Ohh, that was my red line.
Some told our new meeting style to others; wow.. word-of-mouth is really impressive. My peers asked me what I was doing. We had a triumph of high performance.
As a leader, I need my team to have peace of mind. I can not let them go home with ambiguity, stress, and helplessness. For that reason, I prefer the last drop of the resilience of the evenings rather than the vivid energy of the mornings. My stand-ups are not in the morning but in the last 15 minutes of our working hours.
I succeeded to increase productivity and maintain the team spirit mindfully.
Long live Team_DX!
