4 Important Elements to Include in Your Team Meeting

When you established your company, one of the things that made it stand out was the fact that all your employees would work from home instead of traveling daily to a physical location. Instead, you a conference room and a single office for everyone to gather once a month. Along with saving the company money, you want to make the most of the time everyone spends together. Here are some tips that will help.

Prepare and Distribute the Agenda in Advance

This task typically takes a little longer than most people realize. Your best bet is to prepare a draft of the agenda at least three weeks prior to the date everyone will be meeting in the team rooms and then setting it aside for a day or two. Allowing a little time to pass makes it possible to look at the draft with a fresh perspective. If there’s something that needs to be added, modified, or replaced, you can make the changes as part of the final draft.  The best way to manage your time is with a software program specific to your needs – Visit tracktime24.com.

Have the final agenda out at least two weeks before the meeting. That will give everyone time to prepare and still complete their assigned daily tasks without feeling rushed.

Ensure the Bandwidth is Robust Enough for Your Needs

 

Even with everyone gathered face to face, you will still need bandwidth for presentations, employees to connect and check emails during breaks, and maybe some Internet browsing during different segments of the meetings. Always make sure that the team rooms  you lease for the day have plenty of bandwidth available. You don’t need to slow up the proceedings because it’s taking a long time for something to load.

 

Assign Time Limits to Each Agenda Item

 

How many times have you been in a meeting that seemed to go on forever? That typically happens when discussions on action items are allowed to continue much longer than necessary. As part of your agenda, assign time limits on each agenda item. While something could come up that makes it necessary to go a little over, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how setting limits and appointing someone to be the official time keeper will allow things to proceed on track.

 

Build in Question and Answer Periods

 

Your agenda items are not all topics. You also want to include periods for discussion and questions. Consider including a short Q&A session after each topic or at least every couple of topics. This allows people to ask questions and get answers on the spot. You can further streamline the process by asking for questions to be submitted using a software program. This allows you to sort the questions and see when several people are asking the same one.

 

You want to make the most of the short time everyone spends in the same conference room. Plan the meeting carefully and it’s possible to avoid unnecessary delays, get more accomplished, and equip your employees to return home with a fresh vision of how they can help make the company stronger than ever.