Working in a team can be a great way to learn new things from a range of new people. Whether you are new here or could do with a refresher you can find all of our teamwork content here.
Working in a team isn’t always everyone’s favourite thing to do especially if you prefer working on your own, nothing ruins people’s enthusiasm for working in a team faster than things not being organised and having to spend loads of time at meetings.
The joy of working with a team is meeting with and working with others but in school, life and work no one likes having to sit in long meetings feeling like nothing is getting done, this week we are going to look at some ways you can run team meetings more efficiently.
Start as you mean to go on: The key is in the planning and information:
So what do you need to think about in your plan?
Setting your agenda
You need to decide what the meeting is for. Is it for idea sharing, problem solving, updating on progress, consulting on the way forward or to plan the project? Your meeting should ideally only do one of these things, it can feel rushed or the team can lose momentum if you try to cover too much in one session.
It really helps to work out exactly what needs to be covered. Set some plans and objectives for the session, what do you really need to cover today to make sure that 1.the project stays on track and 2.every team member gets all the information they need to complete the tasks they are responsible for when the team isn’t together any more? Once you’ve done this you can plan your agenda; a list of everything that needs to be covered in that session.
Who needs to be there?
For most meetings the whole team will need to be there but there might be other meetings when a smaller group can meet up. It is also worth considering if there are people outside of your team that might be helpful too. Is there a teacher in your school or someone in the business with better knowledge and experience why not have them along to share their story.
How long will it take?
Once you’ve established what the meeting is about, exactly what you need to cover and who will need be there you should be able to work out how long it will take. Be honest with the time you think it will need, if it starts to look like you will need hours you might need to consider what can be done before the meeting or in a later session. It is really important to keep to time, people will have other things to do and meetings to attend, it is also hard to enforce deadlines if you run late on everything!
Letting everyone know:
Working in a team and leading a team means having to make sure that everyone is track and is completing their work whilst also making sure you get all of your work done too, it can be tricky getting an even balance. One thing that will help you is being really clear in your communication: let everybody know the deadlines for work, the dates they will need to be together for meetings and of any problems as early as possible.
In terms of organising meetings it is really important you set an agenda and share it before the meeting. Be really clear on the work that needs to be done before the meeting begins and anything the team needs to read or think about beforehand. Your agenda will set people’s thinking as to how important things are, if something is given 5 minutes on the agenda it can make your team members think that it will be less important than the 20 minute session afterwards. If that 5 minute session involves lots of work before the meeting you will have to make that really clear!
Not leading a team?
If you aren’t in charge of leading a team it doesn’t mean you can’t help put some of these things in to play, if communication and organisation are your strong point put yourself forward to organise the meetings and never be afraid to bring the team back on track. It is up to all team members to make sure they are prepared for meetings and that they run on time.
Your Challenge:
If you are currently working in a team situation see if you can bring this way of organising team meetings in to the group, ask for a few minutes of the next session to talk through what you have learnt and how it can help the team.
