Our previous post focused on the overall cost of miscommunication within U.S. businesses – a staggering amount to say the least!
This has led to a number of questions about the value of conducting weekly team meetings or sales meetings. Like many things in life, people’s opinions vary depending upon their experiences.
For example, the Wall Street Journal shared data from a Verizon survey of more than 1,300 company managers. While 79% of the managers reported that the meetings they initiated were extremely or very productive, only 56% said the same about meetings initiated by others.
So, opinions vary… but overall, the data we’ve seen indicates too many meetings fall into the unproductive category. Some statistics supporting this perspective include:
- The Harvard Business Review cited a survey of 182 senior managers in a range of industries: 65% said meetings keep them from completing their own work. 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient.
- The Muse published an article indicating 67% of meetings are failures
- Inc. Magazine shared a 2019 State of Meetings report, which indicated the cost of poorly organized meetings in 2019 will reach $399 billion in the U.S
However, nearly everyone we’ve polled agrees that, if well run, weekly team meetings can represent a significant opportunity for impacting performance. Here are a few thoughts on the value of well-run team meetings:
- Assessment: Team meetings are key opportunities to assess the team all at once, measure the group’s attitude and identify the best opportunities for leveraging their collective effort.
- Team building: We can’t build team spirit if we don’t regularly “assemble” the team.
- Team motivation: Many people will go the extra mile for the team; but we can’t leverage team motivation if we only interact with the people on an individual basis.
- Thought leadership: Driving a high-performance culture begins with helping people focus on the right things, and publicly identifying / reaffirming core values, best practices, business philosophies, mission, vision, policies, procedures, and protocols.
- Education: Every meeting should have an educational component that is based on the status of your organization and relevant issues of the day; and let’s not forget that “the wisdom is often in the room.” Sharing value-added information and best practices in a public forum not only provides highly credible education, but also allows successful team members an opportunity to shine in front of their peers.
The first step toward conducting an effective meeting is to have a solid plan – including an agenda.
Among of the most common excuses for not having such a plan is “lack of time.”
One solution is to use a planning template, which will help keep meeting agendas more balanced and enable you to plan your weekly team meeting a little-at-a-time.
Here’s an example of a team meeting agenda template, which you can download free of charge from our website.