Yes, it’s true. Getting your team together for a regular meeting can be a pain in the butt because you run out of things to say, get sick of chairing them and the team don’t want to come anyway.

Here are some simple rules to make sure your team meetings are inspirational, educational, informational and lots of fun so that the team will want to come and, more importantly, make things happen as a result!

1. Team meetings should be held regularly on previously scheduled dates and should only be changed as a last resort.
2. Ideal length of a good team meeting is 45 to 60 minutes (up to 90 minutes where a special presenter, guest trainer or worthwhile activity is scheduled).
3. Ideally a team meeting should be held no less frequently than once per fortnight.
4. To make it easier on the manager (and to develop the skills of team members) it is worthwhile rotating the chairing of the meeting amongst participants. The schedule of “who chairs which meeting” should be published well in advance and a fixed agenda format should also be developed.
5. To ensure that the rotating chair concept works effectively the manager must meet with the chairperson of the next meeting about a week before the meeting to confirm that it is organised, that they have no problems and that there are no problems or potential hitches. In a nutshell, the manager should be happy with the meeting content and direction and know that there will be no surprises.
6. All meetings should start and finish on time and persistent latecomers should be actively counselled. Rewarding “on time” attendance and meeting starts is worthwhile.
7. A good meeting must inform, educate, encourage and motivate. Team members should be informed (to overcome the “nobody tells me anything” disease), be educated (so that they have the skills to deliver the results), be encouraged (through recognition and reward), and motivated (to want to do it).
8. A typical team meeting format could be:

i. Welcome (Chairperson, 2 minutes)

ii. What went right for me (Each attendee, 1 minute each)

iii. That was the week (or fortnight) that was— what’s happened since our last meeting including how the business is doing (Manager, up to 10 minutes)

iv. What went right, what went wrong and what do we learn from it (Manager and team members, 5- 10 minutes)

v. Recognition & rewards— making the achievers feel important in front of their peers (Manager, 2-5 minutes)

vi. Skills building session (could be business related like product knowledge from a supplier, role playing amongst the team members, a video, an outside presenter, etc or less frequently on personal development matters like finance, image, travel, etc 15-45 minutes)

vii. Future promotion and advertising programs – details provided and what team members need to do to participate in the program.

viii. Individual aims and objectives for next period (each attendee, 3 minutes)

ix. Motivational close (discretion of Chairperson, 5-10 minutes)

Follow this simple formula and you’ll find that team meetings become a breeze and highly productive. It will overcome most team member’s biggest whinge— that “nobody tells me anything around here.” Communication is the breakfast food of champion teams.