Running weekly meetings can have a major impact on team productivity. When a team is aligned on a goal or project, it will get done in an efficient manner. Weekly meetings encourage teamwork, trust and communication. All of which lead to better outcomes on planned objectives. Trust and communication are two key elements of success in a company and holding regular meetings will act as a way in which to improve both. Here are 10 tips for running weekly meetings to increase productivity.
- Have a team meeting every Monday and Friday
Setting up a team meeting twice weekly ensures that meetings are consistent. This gives your team the opportunity to check in regularly, keep up to date with the progress of campaigns and KPI’s and to give your team a space to voice any concerns or successes of the week. Having a focus for both of these meetings is important.
- Plan each weekly meeting with key objectives in mind
Monday meetingSchedule a meeting each Monday morning to set goals for the week and to talk through the expectations of what each team member expects to achieve. This meeting should be used to plan out each day, set KPI targets and be open to any questions that the team may have about the work planned for the week ahead. Starting a Monday morning with a check-in helps a team to settle into the week with goals in mind and sets a tone of focus for the week.Friday meetingScheduling a meeting on a Friday morning allows a team time to discuss the successes from the week, as well as time to reflect on any issues that may have arisen. It is important, especially when working remotely, that success is celebrated within a team, and a Friday morning meeting is a great way to share encouragement. Use this meeting to reflect on the KPI targets that were set in the Monday meeting and to review the success of any campaigns that were started or press releases that were sent out.
- Keep meetings to 30 minutes & encourage social meetings
Keeping meetings to a strict schedule helps to ensure that all of the necessary points are covered without eating into productivity levels. This also gives each team member time to talk through and review their week and their goals and achievements. It is essential, especially when working remotely, that time is also put aside for social meetings, which give employees a chance to get to know each other outside of strict work meetings. This not only increases trust among employees, but stronger employee relationships also often lead to higher productivity.
- Outline the meeting before it begins
Sending around a memo to involved parties on what will be discussed in the meeting is a great way of ensuring that a meeting covers all necessary talking points within the timeframe. This gives the meeting structure and ensures that each member knows what they are expected to contribute to the meeting. Keep a written agenda of the meeting to reference throughout.
- Submit and prepare topics of discussion beforehand
In order to increase productivity both in meetings and throughout the week, it is important for each team member to write out or track their tasks for the week in a list or task management software. These task lists can be referenced in the beginning and end of week meetings as milestones. Having a team write or submit their tasks or topics of discussion before a meeting is a great way to ensure efficiency and allows each team member to speak about their own work or contribute to a topic of discussion. Use a tool to track the milestones outlined in the meeting. At MediaHQ, we use Teamwork and run meetings through this tool, based on the weekly tasks that we aim to complete.
- Stay committed to these meetings
Each team member should add weekly meetings to their calendar. This will ensure that they are run every week. Keeping consistent with weekly check-ins will build trust and encourage higher productivity throughout a team and company.
- Run the meeting virtually if possible
Running meetings virtually ensures that people are free to attend from different locations around the country or the globe. Virtual meetings allow employees the freedom of working from home while continuing to work productively. This encourages a healthy work life balance and means that employees are generally more productive during working hours. It also makes it easy to run these meetings at the same time each week and stay consistent with check-ins and workflow updates.
- Take minutes and send around an email after each meeting
Taking minutes of a meeting allows you to reflect on what was covered and share the action items that have been discussed. You can use this as a basis for your work that week and reference it in the next meeting.
- Make your meetings efficient
Allocating time for each topic to be covered means that meetings will run smoothly. This also affords time for any questions or comments to be raised at the end if required.
- Cancel ineffective meetings
A major hindrance to productivity occurs when too many meetings are scheduled without real purpose. Taking a look at all of the meetings scheduled within a week with a critical eye will allow you to free up time and increase productivity by killing those meetings which no longer serve a purpose. Taking this initiative will have a positive impact on workflow and frees up more time for your team to work on creating and distributing great stories.
Points to Ponder
- Have you got weekly meetings set in your diary to run through tasks for the week and to reflect on issues or successes that may have arisen?
- Are these meetings efficient?
- Are you committed to running meetings consistently?
- Are you preparing an agenda before the meeting?
- Are you taking minutes to reflect upon?
About MediaHQ
Designed for PR and Communications teams, MediaHQ is the all-in-one media contacts database and press release distribution software with the mission to connect your story with your audience.
It was founded by entrepreneur Jack Murray in 2009. Our cutting-edge software is the best, fastest and most accurate way to find the right journalists, build media and pitch lists in seconds, send press releases and get results.
The comprehensive MediaHQ database lists the details of every journalist, and media outlet in the UK and Ireland and is full of time-saving features.
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