The Lean East team helps organizations improve their processes, including how managers lead their teams and measure results. Over the past ten years, we have helped many organizations improve their management team meeting rhythms and structures.
We often help establish an initial framework and let the leaders adapt the initial structure to what works best for their team. This approach hasn’t always worked well. Some teams have made progress, but wasted time experimenting with different formats and agendas. Other leaders have become frustrated and given up on the weekly meeting altogether.
We have always wanted a defined meeting structure that we show these organizations. This blog post is the new Lean East set of management team meeting best practices. If you regularly follow this structure, we are confident you are going to hold the best management team meeting you ever have.
Why do we even need a weekly management team meeting?
An effective strategic planning process defines the organizational purpose, vision, and measures of success. It also forms the strategic action plan for the year.
Management team meetings hold the organization accountable to the strategic plan while adjusting and adapting to unforeseen circumstances. Effective management team meetings:
- Keep the team informed and aligned on what is most important to the organization.
- Foster a positive and collaborative work environment while holding everyone accountable to achieving results.
- Facilitate open communication and problem-solving.
We find the best rhythm for these meetings is weekly. Daily huddles can be effective, but these meetings have a different purpose. Monthly or quarterly meetings are not held frequently enough to adapt to emerging issues and problems. Some clients have canceled their monthly meetings and only meet weekly – ask us about the benefits of adding monthly topics to your weekly meeting agenda.
Who attends and when do we schedule team meetings?
Weekly management team meetings can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your entire team. We suggest one representative from each core area of the organization attend the weekly meeting (e.g., operations, finance, sales, production, quality, human resources). Strive for between 4-8 people in the meeting for a good mix of input and perspective.
We worked with one organization that shared so much at their weekly meeting that everyone in the organization wanted to attend. Extra people slow down the meeting and made it unbalanced. It’s better to keep the meeting small and share the agenda and minutes openly so the rest of the team can still contribute and stay informed.
Schedule your management team meetings weekly on the same day and time each week. Choose a day and time that typically works for everyone on the team and is unlikely to have conflicts. Attendance is mandatory for everyone in the office, and updates to the review documents are still required if you are away on business or vacation. Since cross-functional areas of the organization are represented, leaders should ask a representative from their team to attend in their place.
The Meeting Agenda
Here is the recommended agenda for an effective team meeting. Note that this agenda will work for most organizations, but expect to spend more time on each agenda item until the team gets into a regular rhythm (usually 3-5 meetings).
1. Welcome and Announcements (5 minutes)
The meeting facilitator must arrive on time to prepare for the meeting. Ask one team member to open all meeting documents to display for the team. The facilitator should also:
- Warmly welcome team members.
- Assign meeting roles. Someone needs to facilitate, and someone needs to record updates. A separate person as a timekeeper is also recommended.
- Share any important company news or updates and recognize any organizational achievements or milestones only if they won’t be mentioned later in the meeting.
2. Team Check-in (5-10 minutes)
We suggest involving all team members at the start of the meeting by holding a brief check-in. Have all meeting attendees spend no more than one minute answering these questions about their team:
- Who is away in the coming week and who is covering? Provide an update on team schedules for the week.
- What changes on our team or team news needs to be shared? This is a chance to mention new hires, job advancements, or other personnel changes.
- What are the team priorities (or rocks) for the week? Rocks are your most important priorities and the things you must schedule first.
3. Dashboard Review (5 minutes – no more!)
Review the organizational dashboard of KPIs and key metrics with the entire team. Start at the top and have each responsible person note whether the metric is meeting the goal or not meeting the goal. This is for reporting only, not discussion.
The recorder should note for the minutes:
- Accomplishments the team is excited about.
- Any metrics not on target that need to be discussed later in the meeting. Add these to an Issues List.
- Other actions identified to be added to the Issues List.
4. Discussion of Current Projects (5-15 minutes)
Review the status of ongoing projects (rocks from the strategic action plan). Each team should have between 5-10 of these.
- DO NOT revisit what the project is about. Everyone should be aware already.
- If the project/rock is on target, or there is no update to discuss, move on.
- Discuss any roadblocks or challenges that threaten a project and ensure people are actively working on their projects.
The key is not to discuss every project and issue, but to ensure that priorities are clear, and the right people are supporting the project need. Let small groups meet separately about the project later.
5. Problem-Solving and Decision Making (20-30 minutes)
With effective prep, half of your meeting time will be spent on this agenda item. See the description below.
6. Close the Meeting (5 minutes)
The timekeeper or facilitator should call a warning when there are 10 minutes left in the meeting to wrap up any open items and begin to close the meeting. We suggest the facilitator close the meeting by:
- Summarizing key decisions and actions from the meeting. Be sure that responsibilities are assigned and expectations are clear.
- Note any feedback on the meeting format and agenda (what went well and what didn’t) for future improvement.
- Provide a final word of encouragement to the team.
Problem Solving and Decision Making
The best management team meetings include time for discussing emergent issues and challenges. This can save hours for your team, as they know new issues will be discussed and solved at the weekly meeting rather than outside of the meeting.
Begin this time by reviewing an active Issues List consisting of:
- New issues added during the earlier meeting discussion.
- Any issues added by team members before the meeting for discussion at the meeting.
- Open issues from the list that were added at previous team meetings.
Have the team select the top three issues that need to be discussed. Strive to spend 5-10 minutes discussing and solving these three issues.
We like the three-step IDS™ process shared in the book, Traction:
- Identify – ensure you understand the problem at its root level.
- Discuss – keep this step short! Focus more on identifying the root causes rather than lots of discussion about the issue. Avoid tangents.
- Solve – add the action that comes from your discussion to an Action list that will ensure the issue is resolved.
Meeting Ground Rules
The best management team meetings include established ground rules for the meeting. Ask us for examples of our favorite ground rules.
Here are other meeting best practices:
- Start and end on time: Respect everyone’s time and maintain a focused agenda.
- Facilitate effective communication: Use active listening and clear communication to avoid misunderstandings. Create a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable contributing. Avoid sidebar conversations and use a parking lot to capture other topics and actions.
- Leaders must prepare for the meeting: The agenda above only works when each leader updates their dashboard metrics and project status prior to the meeting, not during the meeting. Only leaders that do the pre-work have the best management team meetings.
- Review and improve: Regularly assess the effectiveness of your meetings and make necessary adjustments.
It is important to note that this meeting format does not have meeting minutes emailed out after the meeting! The Dashboard, Issues List, and Strategic Plan are all updated during the meeting in front of everyone present and are all referenced by the team after the meeting.
Summary
We will share this post with existing and new clients who want to hold the best weekly management team meeting. We have learned a lot from coaching many teams over the past ten years and will update this post as we learn more in the coming years.
Please use these ideas to improve your organizational effectiveness and share your questions and comments below!
