Honest Authentic & Productive Team Meeting Hacks

Do you facilitate honest, authentic, productive team meetings?  Most of us have been in a meeting and witnessed passive aggressive eye rolling, people on mobiles, antagonistic behaviour, passivity, and disengagement. 

These behaviours are distracting and non-productive and they set a negative tone for the meeting that can often flow into the rest of the day and onto other members in the business outside the meeting space.  So how do we facilitate honest, authentic productive meetings? 

Upper Management spend 50% of their time in meetings, middle management 35% and 35% of employees report wasting 2-5 hours per day on wasted meetings and calls and my take-out is we can do better and be more productive. 

Hacks for doing better:

1. Preparation - Give reasonable notice of the meeting.  Tuesdays at 2.30 is the optimal day and time because it is not too late in the week and not too early in the morning.  Communicate the duration of the meeting which is optimally 45 – 60 minutes and stick to it.  Outline the objectives, format, and desired outcomes.  Advise that attendance of all invitees is required.  Nominate a Minutes recorder whose contribution is not required in the meeting, so their sole focus is the task.   Ensure all resources are provided and operational. 

2. Environment – Set the meeting up for success by ensuring the meeting space is distraction free.  Ensure comfortable furnishings, suitable lighting, and an optimal room temperature of 19-21 degrees. Make meetings a mobile free zone and provide water and refreshments if appropriate.  Note pads and pens are also a good idea. 

3. Set the mood - Allow reasonable small talk before opening the meeting, this builds camaraderie and encourages interaction. 

4. Rules – Outline the rules of the meeting at the outset including governance, intolerance of interruptions and side talk, question-asking etiquette, participation expectations and knowing how you will manage the extroverts and encourage the introverts.  

5.  Feedback - Welcome honest, professional, and factual input including dissenting views stipulating that it is to be delivered with empathy, care and support and done with constructive intentions.  Also ask for possible solutions that give the team options to consider. 

6. Closing - Close your meeting thanking everyone for their time and participation and communicating what the next step is including the distribution of the minutes.