Great teamwork has been key to many organizations surviving the pandemic. Moving forward, teams are likely to look and function in different ways, so it will be essential to ensure that meetings are efficient, productive, and engaging. Three new habits will make this easier:
- Define the meeting culture. What is expected of a meeting? Will be there a strict agenda? Will it start and end precisely at specific times? The leader needs to set the tone and model meeting behavior and structure.
- Clarify who and how people should be involved. Meeting overload is a symptom of poor planning and contributes to morale problems. Only involve those individuals who absolutely need to be at meetings and be respectful of their time and contributions.
- Teach/empower team members to define their desired outcomes. Encourage people to go into meetings with specific objectives and goals and a plan to achieve these.