For so many employees, meetings can all too easily feel like wasted time – taking us away from our ever-increasing jobs list. But small adjustments can turn your weekly staff meeting into a productive event and a team-building exercise in one. Which is what they should be.

1.      Set an agenda

Meetings that run on past their allotted time are lacking in purpose, so make sure you have an agenda circulated in advance of the event. With this in place, all attendees know what the purposes of the meeting are – and these objectives should be reiterated at the start of the meeting.

2.      Appoint a deputy

Ask someone to be your ‘wingman’ who will support you in getting the meeting off to a smooth start and a prompt finish. From checking the technical equipment needed to sorting refreshments, you can’t do it all yourself. They can also keep time and offer reminders if the meeting starts to fall behind schedule.

3.      Delegate leaders

Don’t exhaust yourself: hand over leadership of certain portions of the meeting to other staff members if they have the greater knowledge and experience in this specific agenda topic. This also breaks up the monotony of having one speaker throughout.

4.      Share ground rules

Team members can often leave meetings feel frustrated because they feel their opinion hasn’t been heard. Sidestep this potential issue by sharing the time limit for each agenda item, and building in some time for questions – but not too much time. Your wingman could also be responsible for making sure team members stick to the point when contributing ideas, and not monopolising the forum at the expense of others.

5.       Stay relevant

If your meetings resemble a series of sub-meetings which only involve a handful of attendees at a time, you are wasting everyone’s time at some point. Other forms of communication could be used to cover the topics of your sub-meetings. Either this, or you should reconsider who really needs to be at each meeting. Making certain meetings obligatory for certain members and optional for others is a diplomatic way to offer everyone involvement.

… And sometimes all that’s needed to bring a bit of renewed focus to your regular staff meeting is a change of scenery. Holding yours in a different location or at a more productive time of the day, for example, could make all the difference.

Teambuilding exercises can also do wonders for team moral which of course helps everyone get along in meeting.

What are your tips for shaking up staff meetings and getting more out of them? Drop us a comment below.