Teams: 8 things that can go wrong.
Nº 1. Problems with meetings and what to do.
Lots of people associate "teamwork" with "meetings". Especially when meetings become bad experiences. Here is a list of features that are typical of the kind meetings that destroy teams or even ensure that a true team spirit never comes to life.
- Meetings start late
- People arrive late
- The first item is interminable and the other items are rushed
- You want to fall asleep or your mind is a million miles away from the meeting
- Meetings always finish late
- One or two people dominate the talk space
- You and others don't contribute
- People leave with feelings of frustration, anger, energy loss, depression
- No decisions taken or arbitrary imposition after inconclusive discussion
- Private agendas and conflicts between participants
These features of bad meetings have a very strong impact on team functioning and on team spirit. Left alone, things get worse. Relationships between team members can be irretrievably damaged.
So what can be done?
Well, surprisingly much of the damage can be stopped with some simple steps:
- Agenda and support documents are sent out well ahead of the meeting.
- Firm Chairing of the meeting. The meeting leader should be clearly in control of the meeting.
- Clear action points with names and timings associated to them.
- Meetings start and finish on time and they as short as possible.
Spend 10 minutes at the end of the meeting to review how it worked.
- Minutes of the meeting are sent to particpants within 2 days.
There are other steps to take if these measures are not enough to make positive changes. They involve taking a step back to analyse how the team works. One by working within the team to develop a problem-solving process. The other is to work with someone from outside the team to analyse how the team works.
We will look at the other 7 problems in future newsletters. The information and advice is focused on team working, but is also of much wider application in our day-to-day lives.
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