The Reincarnation of the Weekly Staff Meeting
Remember in the “good, old days” before downsizing, corporate layoffs, stock market collapse and stimulus packages when a weekly staff meeting was a chance to check in and see what different departments were working on? Whether casual or button down business the weekly staff meeting was sure to have good eats, possibility of some networking, water cooler conversation and even a commendation if you or your department was lucky. Occasionally a company big wig joined the meeting and that person stirred up some interdepartmental posturing and jockeying for attention. What changed?
The corporate culture and the way we do business drastically changed. Business is not local, business is internationally competitive and it has become figuratively a steroid induced environment. If you have a job chances are you are multitasking and overlapping in several departments. Who has time for a weekly staff meeting when the forty- hour work- week is a distant memory? Technology via cell phones, blackberries, laptops, emails, texting and tweets have made the average employee accessible 24/7. Employees dread a weekly meeting and frankly many feel it is no longer necessary. Any internal exchange of company information or ideas can be handled on the spot without an unnecessary face to face meeting. Have you noticed a pervasive business attitude of “save meeting time” for the clients? But mention a “staff meeting” and the attitude shifts towards let me use my “get out of jail card” to avoid another useless meeting. What is wrong with this picture?
Meeting effectiveness is a critical foundation piece for a team’s push towards high performance and success. Technology is often a time saver but nothing replaces personal interaction. If we stress the importance of the “personal meeting” with our clients, why are we diminishing our effectiveness as an organization by not placing the same level of importance on staff meetings? Just like our crumbling infrastructure is wrecking havoc in US cities, a business can lose ground in the marketplace if attention is not focused on the internal structure of the business. Staff meetings provide critical face to face contact between internal teams that move a business forward.
Here are a few tips to revitalize the weekly staff meeting in your organization. Many teams are learning that in order to decrease frustration and ineffectiveness in staff meetings the following “basic steps” are essential:
1. Establish Ground Rules or “Norms”: This sets the tone for how group members are expected to behave. As a team develops, you may need to add or delete items to the norms. As the team changes, you may need to revisit the norms. Establishing norms also provides an opportunity to agree on who runs the meetings, time limits for speaking, deadlines for decision making and determining attendance requirements.
2. Appoint a scheduling coordinator to keep the meeting calendar, send out meeting reminders, and send minutes to those who can’t attend the meeting.
3. Appoint a Scribe to record all the action items that are identified during the team meeting. These key action items include: WHO, WHAT, WHEN and EXPECTED OUTCOME. (This will cut down on the perception that nothing gets accomplished in a staff meeting.)
4. Appoint a minute taker for each meeting. The minute taker, scribe and scheduling coordinator need to collaborate for accuracy.
5. Develop an agenda prior to each meeting and distribute it in advance of the meeting so that people have the opportunity to prepare. Prior knowledge of the agenda is a definite time saver.
6. Create time to share successes and applaud teams or departments for a job well done. Never underestimate the power of positive recognition.
7. Build constructive feedback into the agenda to help move the business forward.
8. Be consistent with the time allotted for the meeting.
9. If the budget allows be creative and provide snacks for the meeting. If there are budget constraints, come up with a snack theme and get each team or department to bring something. Food provides an incentive to share.
