Each of these meetings has its own purpose and benefits for your organization, so it’s important to understand how to run them effectively to maximize their potential.
In this blog post, we’ll explore why these four types of meetings are beneficial for businesses and provide some tips for getting the most out of them.
1. The weekly meeting
The purpose
The weekly meeting is an essential part of any business and should be used to review progress on projects, discuss any issues or challenges that have arisen during the week and plan for upcoming tasks.
The opportunity
Establishing regular meetings provides an opportunity for team members to get to know each other and build a foundation of trust. It also allows teams to define shared goals, establish patterns of communication and create a comfortable environment for team members to openly express opinions. Additionally, regular meetings allow teams to stay on top of changes in the industry or organization and proactively. The key is to ensure that these meetings remain productive by having a clear agenda, setting measurable goals and providing ample time for team members to engage in meaningful dialogue.
The challenge
Running productive and fun weekly meetings can be a challenge—especially with scaling teams. However, with the right preparation and attitude, you can make your team meetings more effective and enjoyable. Here are some tips and ideas for running the most productive and fun weekly meetings:
- Connect with everyone in the room. Take a few minutes to check in with each other before diving into the technical parts of your meeting. This helps build trust among team members and creates an atmosphere of collaboration. (This can be planned into the agenda!)
- Add some fun! Incorporate activities or games into your meeting to break up the monotony and keep everyone engaged.
- Link the agenda to your mission. Remind everyone why they’re there by connecting their work to the company’s overall mission or goals. (If you can’t link back to a specific goal or mission, you can ask if the meeting is needed at this point in time.)
- Support participation from all members of the team. Ask questions, solicit feedback, and provide opportunities for everyone to contribute ideas or solutions.
- Choose a good date and time. Make sure that the date and time chosen for each weekly meeting is the least disruptive time possible for all participants so that they can focus outside of meetings.
- Share the action items for each week so that everyone knows what needs to be done before next week’s meeting and can plan accordingly.
- Assign meeting roles such as note-taker, facilitator, timekeeper, etc., so that there is clarity around who is responsible for which tasks during each meeting session which helps ensure that things run smoothly from start to finish.
- Plan ahead of time by creating an agenda with topics you want to cover during each session. This will ensure you don’t waste valuable time trying to figure out what needs to be discussed during meetings.
- Celebrate successes by recognizing individual accomplishments as well as collective achievements throughout each week.
- Keep your team focused on one topic at a time by avoiding tangents or unrelated conversations which can lead to wasted time and energy.
The Bloom Growth™ solution
- Custom agenda sections
Have any G-Suite Docs or spreadsheets you want to discuss during your meeting? Add an external page to your agenda and keep everything in one place. Build the perfect agenda for your team here. - Check-in
The Check-in gives your team space to break the ice, build trust among team members and set the meeting off to a great start. - Metrics
Our Metrics feature shows your team’s KPIs categorized in green or red, making weekly data easy to analyze. - Goal review
The Goal feature simplifies project management, allowing you to keep track of your team’s goals, set milestones and check them off as you go. - Headlines
Easily create Headlines to share important news (both good and bad) with the click of a button. - To-Do list
Create a checklist of To-dos, assign them to team members and set deadlines to keep your team on track and accountable. - Issues
Make solving Issues a breeze with an Issues list that allows you to share information across meetings, take notes and resolve blockers on the spot. - Wrap-up
End each meeting by assigning it a rating, recapping To-dos and cascading information for increased transparency and accountability. - The tangent button
Anonymously press the tangent button when the meeting goes off track. This is a fun (no really, there’s confetti! 🎉) little reminder. - Automated meeting minute summary
After each weekly meeting, each member of the meeting receives a summary of the Issues discussed, action items, people headlines and anything else relevant for the following week.
2. The one-on-one
The purpose
The one-on-one meeting allows for more intimate conversations between managers and employees, allowing them to discuss their individual performance as well as any other topics related to their work.
Here at Bloom Growth™, we call these Quarterly conversations and we like to have them as informally as possible. If you work in person, this would happen over a drink or coffee—this is our virtual equivalent.
The opportunity
One-on-one conversations with a direct report can be an excellent opportunity to build rapport and trust within the team. By having an informal, friendly chat, you create a space where both parties feel comfortable enough to discuss vital topics openly and honestly. Not only will they gain insight into you as their team leader, but they may also reveal insights that can help you better understand them and the work they do.
One-on-one conversations are also helpful for giving feedback, brainstorming ideas, or simply showing that you care about the individual’s work and progress. Taking the time to have these conversations can be mutually beneficial for both parties involved.
The questions
Here are some questions you can ask during a one-on-one with a direct report to help nurture an open, friendly work environment:
- How do you think we could improve our communication?
- What could I do to make the working environment more enjoyable for you?
- Are there any areas of your job that need improvement or extra attention?
- What tasks have been gratifying for you lately?
- Have there been any recent disagreements or misunderstandings in the workplace?
- Are there any obstacles that have been affecting your performance recently?
- Is there anything else I can do to support your productivity and success?
3. The annual planning session
The purpose
The annual planning session is an excellent way for businesses to set goals for the upcoming year. During this type of meeting, all team members come together to discuss what they want to achieve in the coming year and how they plan on getting there.
The opportunity
The opportunities may seem obvious but in reality—they’re endless. ✨ Your annual planning session is a place to get creative. Think outside the box and make big, hairy, audacious goals—while still being attainable—for yourself and your business once a year.
During the annual planning session, you can set ambitious goals to help guide your team and business in the right direction. Setting these goals will also give everyone something to work towards throughout the year.
It’s important to remember that when setting big goals, they should be realistic and achievable. It’s also essential to break down each goal into smaller tasks so everyone clearly understands what needs to be done and progress can be tracked along the way.
Overall, an annual planning session is an excellent opportunity for businesses to set ambitious goals and create a plan of action for achieving them. Companies can use this time as an opportunity to grow and reach new heights!
The questions
As you prepare for your annual planning session, it’s important to ask the right questions to help you identify and achieve your big goals. Here are ten questions to consider:
- What is our company’s mission?
- What are our core values?
- What were our biggest successes this year?
- What areas need improvement?
- How can we better leverage our strengths?
- What new opportunities should we pursue?
- How can we increase efficiency and productivity?
- How can we better serve our customers and clients?
- What changes do we need to make to stay competitive in the market?
- How can we measure success in the upcoming year?
More tips on getting the most out of your company’s annual planning session. 🔥
The quarterly planning session
The purpose
Finally, the quarterly planning session is another necessary type of business meeting. Here you can review the last quarter’s progress, make tweaks to strategies or change direction completely.
The opportunity
This meeting type gives you four opportunities to ask vital team questions during the year. Here you can see what’s working and not working and patterns that are developing throughout your larger annual goals. These meetings are the perfect opportunity to make changes to stay on course for your big goals or determine if your ‘big goals’ fit your organization.
The questions
Asking the right questions during a quarterly planning session is essential to staying on track for annual goals. Here are some questions to consider:
- What progress have we made toward our yearly goals since the last quarter?
- What challenges have we faced and how did we address them?
- What new initiatives should be taken on in the next quarter?
- Are there any projects that need to be re-prioritized or dropped?
- Are there any areas where additional resources are required?
- Are there any changes in our customer base or market trends that need to be addressed?
- How can we measure success for each project and goal?
- Are there any risks associated with current projects or goals that need to be addressed?
- What lessons can we learn from the successes and failures of the past quarter?
- How can we ensure that everyone is aligned with our overall mission and objectives?
We simply like to start with “what’s working and what’s not?” and go around the table.
Automated meeting prep
In our experience, quarterly meetings require some prep work since most supervisors prepare written notes to guide the conversation with their direct reports. But what if you could automate the gathering and organizing of notes for your quarterly meeting? Well now, you can! Here’s how.
One more note on your way…
With the average number of meetings, finding time to get the rest of our job done can be challenging! Remember when taking additional meetings to consider whether you’re needed in the meeting and what prep work can be done beforehand to make the meeting more productive. Happy meeting!