How to Run Effective Team Meetings?

Here are some tips on how to master meetings shared by Julia Austin, a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration, in Harvar BusinessSchool.com
Purpose
You have to set a purpose for the meeting and establish the goals. Ask your team about their perspectives, ideas and what they want out of this meeting.

Agenda
Send the meeting agenda to your team before the meeting (24 hours in advance). This will make them ready and well prepared. Also, ” you should solicit one to two hot topics per meeting from your team”. Then encourage your team members to discuss their ideas/ opinions. Austin stated that you have to  “carve out 10 minutes at the end of the agenda to take the pulse of your team. My method is “share thumbs at one”. Count three, two, one. On one, everyone gives a thumbs up, down, or sideways. I do a quick read of the room and video screens to gauge if we’re trending in a particular direction and, if so, take time to discuss. People feeling really up? Share why! People feeling down? How can we work together to make things better? This simple, transparent way of sharing how the team is feeling is a great way for you to lead and for them to support each other. I also find doing this at the end versus the start of a meeting tends to give you a better read because no one is bringing the stress from a prior meeting into their pulse check”.

Engagement
Ask one of your team members to lead a discussion about certain topics in each meeting. They will facilitate the topics to the team members. ” The more they have ownership in a topic, the more engaged they’ll be”.
Austin also stated that “the team’s leader should not speak more than one-third of the time throughout the meeting”. So your job is to lead the discussion and “listen” to others. “If you’re a  poor facilitator” bring someone else but not from your team.

Tactical Stuff
Avoid scheduling your meetings on Sunday or Thursday and find the date/time that convenient for your team members.
Assign your team members to take notes during the meeting. “You and/or the facilitator cannot read the room and take notes at the same time. Further, by rotating the role across your team, you foster engagement and get fresh perspectives on the meetings each time. Notes should be distributed no later than 24 hours after the meeting while things are fresh. Always call out AIs with owners and deadlines in the notes.”