Effective Team Meetings

Effective Team Meetings

Agenda • Objectives • What are team meetings? • How to make team meetings effective • Team meeting agenda • Code of conduct • Roles and responsibilities • Team leader hints • Summary

Objectives Objectives Training Strategies Training Strategies After training and follow-up coaching you will be able to: • Lead an effective team meeting using a standard agenda • Use a code of conduct to get good meeting behavior • Encourage participation, handle disruptive behavior and address concerns during team meetings • Describe how to prepare and lead a team meeting • Explain how to prepare a team meeting agenda using standard format • Explain what is a code of conduct, give examples • Describes hints for team leaders on how to encourage participation, handle disruptive behavior and address concerns

Exercise 1 Visualize the last bad meeting you attended — What made it bad? Visualize the last good meeting you attended — hat made it good?

What are team meetings? Meetings are designed to • Share ideas and information on improving performance • Encourage team to work together to accomplish common goals • Identify problems or opportunities, analyze causes and recommend solutions • Provide team members with feedback on team performance • Give recognition and reinforcement • Connect everyone in the organization through team communication

What are team meetings? Team meetings are not • Complaint or gripe sessions • Pep talk • Social get-togethers • Time to blame, attack or criticize individuals • Time to discuss contractual or personal matters

What are team meetings? Up Down Across You will be responsible for communication between the team you lead and any teams in which you are a member

Meetings, bloody meetings 8 ATK3/EOT.3p/sl

How to make team meetings effective • Plan • Prepare • Inform • Structure and control • Summarize and record

How to make team meetings effective Before the meeting — plan, prepare and inform • Plan the main objectives that you want to accomplish • Prepare an agenda • Document the objective of any problem solving item • Set time limits for each agenda topic proportional to its importance • Give advance notice of the meeting and distribute agenda • Update any graphs or other materials intended for the meeting and bring them

How to make team meetings effective Considerations in planning a meeting • Motivation or common objective • Frequency of meetings • Composition of attendees • Process used to run meeting

How to make team meetings effective During the meeting — structure and control • Start and end on time • Ask team members for additional meeting agenda items • Use a code of conduct, a gatekeeper and a minute taker • Encourage participation and address all concerns equally • Write the main points on whiteboards • Write who is responsible next to each decision

How to make team meetings effective During the meeting — tructure and control (con’d) • Break into small groups or assign a small group to work on an assignment outside the meeting • Summarize and restate conclusions and assignments • Conduct periodic evaluations of the meetings • Evaluation “T-account” • Quick verbal assessment • Observer

How to make team meetings effective After the meeting — summarize and record • Concise minutes within 24 hours • Follow-up on progress • List incomplete actions on next agenda • Get answers to questions and concerns

Team Meeting Agenda • Using a standard agenda will help • Setting objectives and checking for success • Ensuring time spent on an item is commensurate with its importance • Documenting all actions and responsibilities to ensure completion • Use a standard agenda with • Introduction and follow-up items • Business Issues/Problem solving • Questions/concerns and Communications • Summary and next meeting

Team meeting agenda • Use of a standard agenda helps to ensure that our team meetings cover all the important attributes of a successful meeting • By using the agenda on a regular basis, it enables all teams, at any level, to become familiar with the format and style-improving the content, pace and efficiency of the meeting • The standard agenda may not be appropriate for single topics or working sessions

Team meeting agenda • Introduction and follow-up items • Welcome, review meeting objective(s) and agenda; appoint minute taker and gatekeeper • Review previous meeting • Minutes • Highlights • Questions and concerns • Review team performance • Team performance measures • Recognition of individual efforts • Review outstanding action items

Team meeting agenda • Problem Solving/Business Issues • Use creative problem solving techniques to address • New opportunities for continuous improvement • Specific performance problems • Special items directed by management teams • Management teams also work to resolve problems raised by subordinate teams • Questions, Concerns and communications • Questions, concerns and highlights of team members • Incoming news items • Outgoing (communication needs/issues)

Team meeting agenda • Summary and next meeting • Summary, quality assessment • Next meeting(s) • Agenda items for future meetings • Action items from today’s meeting • Results in meeting • Items to address in future meeting(s)

20 TIME 1.0 Introduction and follow-up: 1.1 Review meeting objective(s) and agenda; appoint minute taker and gatekeeper 1.2 Review previous meeting • Minutes • Highlights (including +/changes) • Questions and concerns 1.3 Review team performance • Team performance measures • Recognition of individual efforts 1.4 Review outstanding action items (see attached table/earlier minutes) 2.0 Business Issues/Problem Solving/Team Development TIME BEGUN: TIME ENDED: GATE KEEPER ID ISSUE DISCUSSION LEADER TIME Team meeting agenda DATE: MEETING TIME: MEETING LOCATION: MINUTE TAKER: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TEAM MEMBERS*: * (X) = present OTHER ATTENDEES:

Team meeting agenda Time Time 3.0 4.0 Questions/Concerns, Communications 3.1 Questions, Concerns, Highlights of Team Members 3.2 Incoming News Items 3.3 Outgoing (Communications Needs/Issues) Summary, Next Meeting 4.1 Summary/Quality Assessment 4.2 Next Meeting(s) 4.3 Agenda Items For Future Meetings (enter in Section C below) What Went Well Even More Effective If Date Host Minutekpr Gatekpr Time Location 21

Team Meeting Agenda A. Action Items From Today’s Meeting B. Results in Meeting C. Items to Address in Future Meeting(s) Due Date Status Task Responsibility Issue/Item Date 22

Team meeting agenda • Make the format work for you • Management teams • Provide feedback on subordinate teams • Address questions and concerns brought up by the organization • Plan what to communicate down the organization • Do not always have to cover every agenda item • Summarize/restate any major point, decision or action item

Code of conduct Code of conduct • A code of conduct is the sum of the rules and guidelines which the team will follow • It should be developed and agreed upon by the team • Once agreed to, it becomes the criteria against which a team member’s behavior is evaluated

Code of conduct Sample code of conduct • Be on time • Start on time/End on time • You are responsible to catch up if you miss a meeting • No ideas are stupid • Conflict is allowed/Conflict must be resolved • All are equal

Code of conduct Sample code of conduct (cont’d) • Minimize superfluous talk • Stay on topic • Fulfill commitments • Pay attention to speaker, avoid disrupting • Be totally open to all ideas and suggestions from any source • Don’t jump to conclusions — find causes first

Code of conduct Brainstorming exercise What do you want to see in your team’s code of conduct?

Roles and responsibilities Role of the team leader • Schedule, plan and prepare • Lead the meetings • Create open atmosphere • Encourage participation • Address team members’ concerns • Provide performance feedback

Roles and responsibilities Role of the team leader (cont’d) • Lead problem solving • Handle disruptive behavior • Keep the team on track • Serve as communication link • Push for results

Roles and responsibilities Role of team members • Actively participate • Volunteer and assume responsibilities • Complete assigned tasks • Reinforce each other and team leader • Take turns as minute taker and gatekeeper

Roles and responsibilities Role of team coordinator • Help team leader to prepare meetings • Assist in leading team meetings • Push for results • Challenge team thinking • Provide feedback to team leader

Managing meeting behavior How to encourage participation • Welcome input • Ask open-ended questions • Call on people by name • Listen to ideas • Show interest • Treat people equally

Managing meeting behavior How to encourage participation (cont’d) • Rephrase comments • Reinforce participation • Never belittle anyone or any idea • Encourage discussion of differing points of view • Thank everyone for their ideas

Managing meeting behavior How to handle disruptive behavior • Set expectations of behavior in meetings • Model appropriate behavior • Ignore disruptive behavior • Draw the person back into the meeting • Use self-disclosure • Use empathy

Managing meeting behavior How to handle disruptive behavior (cont’d) • Ask direct questions to refocus • Rephrase to clarify disputes • Cut off people who are monopolizing the discussion • Provide negative feedback or counsel in private • Address the person directly

Managing meeting behavior Addressing concerns • Repeat or rephrase the concern • List on whiteboard • Categorize “controllable” and “uncontrollable” • Set priorities • Elevate “uncontrollable” concerns • Report on progress • Don’t allow continued griping

Managing meeting behavior Frequent concerns • Not enough people • Management never listens • Poor communication between shifts • Need more training • Too much overtime • Too many meetings

Managing meeting behavior Exercise What would you do as a team leader in the following situations?

Managing meeting behavior • You have one or two people who are always 5 to 10 minutes late • You have one person who always wants to talk about how things were handled 25 years ago • You have two people who sit in the corner and discuss other work problems • You have a person who tells jokes during the meeting and gets people off-track

Managing meeting behavior • You have a person who never contributes, but sighs, stares out the window and looks bored • You have two people who don’t get along and who argue with each other during the meetings • You have a person who falls asleep in meetings • You have a person who speaks beyond the allotted time • You have a person who interrupts

Managing meeting behavior • In the previous meeting, a member agreed to complete a specific tasks. This task has not been done • During the meeting, three or four members start talking at once. No one is sure what has been said • A member has not said anything during the first two meetings. During the third meeting this person says, “Yeah, I agree with Joe” • A member interrupts the leader, talks a lot and generally tries to take control of the meeting from the leader

Managing meeting behavior • During the brainstorming session, all but one member have participated. How would you get this person involved? • When suggestions are made, one member tends to be negative and points out what’s wrong with the ideas other people generate and why they don’t work • One member constantly complains that she doesn’t have time to work on her assignments

Managing meeting behavior • A member feels that nothing can be accomplished until upper management gets organized. This person is not satisfied that management is working things at their level and complains by asking, “What can management do about this?”, rather than “What can we do to solve the problem?” • A member is obviously angry about the group's decision that he originally supported and begins to argue with you • One member makes a long statement that is important, but not clearly stated

Summary • Team meetings are the vehicle for effective organizational teamwork • Team meetings are designed to • Share ideas and information on improving performance • Encourage team to work together to accomplish common goals • Identify problems or opportunities, analyze causes and recommend solutions • Provide team members with feedback on team performance • Give recognition and reinforcement • Connect everyone in the organization through team communication

Summary • To make team meetings effective, the team leader has to • Plan, prepare and inform • Structure and control • Summarize and record • Team meetings will follow a standard agenda. This will help • Setting objectives and checking for success • Ensuring time spent on an item is commensurate with its importance • Documenting all actions and responsibilities to ensure completion • The standard agenda items are • Introduction and follow-up items • Business issues/problem solving • Questions/concerns and communications • Summary and next meeting

Summary • The Team’s Code of Conduct represents the rules and guidelines which govern all team interactions inside and outside the meetings • The team leader, team members, and the team coordinators each take on their own roles and responsibilities • The team leader’s role includes • Encouraging participation • Handling disruptive behavior • Addressing team member concerns

Effective Team Meetings