Communication Can Be Optimized Too: How to Run Effective Team Meetings?

When we consider time management and productivity, our focus is often on managing our work and the time spent on completing tasks. However, a significant amount of time is also spent organizing and discussing how to approach work, which is equally important. Ineffective meetings, in particular, can be a major drain on our time and productivity. By optimizing team communication and meetings, we can boost our overall efficiency and productivity.

Use a Meeting Template

To optimize productivity and time, using ready-to-use templates instead of building from scratch is a wise choice. Fortunately, templates are available for almost anything you need these days!

Managing all your processes, projects, and teams from a centralized space is an effective way to increase productivity at work. By using a meeting template, you can schedule meetings, prepare discussion topics, take notes, and share documents all in one place.

If your business database is stored in a productivity platform like Docyrus, it's even easier to share and integrate data, making communication smoother within teams. Take a look at the features you can benefit from by using a meeting template:

Build a Collaborative Agenda

The first step to conducting an effective team meeting is to create an agenda. The agenda will serve as the backbone of the meeting and is an effective way to track the issues and topics that will be discussed. You have the flexibility to choose the format of your agenda, whether it's bulleted, a list, or a table view.

You can customize the meeting template as you see fit and create recurring agendas for your weekly meetings, which can include metrics and updates on projects, without needing to create them from scratch every time.

One of the advantages of a collaborative agenda is that users can add items and make comments. By having a document that everyone can view, adjustments can be made in real-time, updates and progress on certain topics can be tracked, and actions recorded. Additionally, it gives all meeting attendees a voice and ensures that everyone's input is heard.

Meeting Minutes

To make meetings more efficient, it's important to minimize unnecessary time waste. One way to do this is by having good note-taking skills. The meeting minutes feature in built-in templates can help with this by providing a quick and easy way to take notes. This eliminates the need for a separate app for note-taking and saves time.

Plus, the meeting minutes feature allows for the automatic sharing of notes with all attendees after each meeting, eliminating the need to share them manually. This feature can save time and make sure that all attendees have access to the same information, reducing the chance of misunderstandings or miscommunications.

Track Time

Do you ever find yourself losing track of time during meetings, especially when discussing a hot topic? This tool can help you optimize your time and use it properly during meetings. By using a time tracking widget, you can monitor how much time you spend on each subject and pass on another topic. This feature can be integrated into a meeting template to ensure that meetings stay on track and remain productive.

Follow the Agenda

One of the most common mistakes made in inefficient meetings is spending too much time on a single issue that takes a long time to resolve. This can be an indicator of a larger underlying problem that cannot be solved by simply taking up more people's time. Therefore, it's important to stick to the meeting agenda that was prepared beforehand.

If a particular topic takes longer than expected, urgent action should be taken on the most pressing matters, and further discussion on that issue should be postponed to evaluate any changes that may have occurred. This will help to ensure that meetings remain productive and efficient, while also allowing the team to focus on other important tasks.

You can use the Docyrus Meeting Template to create a meeting agenda that can help you run well-organized and effective meetings.

Spare Time for Feedback

Allocating time for feedback is an essential yet often overlooked aspect of improving meeting efficiency. By gathering comments and suggestions from attendees, you can identify areas for improvement and take corrective action. Discussing what went well and what didn't in a project, work, or business process helps team members to identify what to continue doing and learn from previous mistakes. 

When team members feel that their opinions are being listened to and taken seriously, it creates a culture of continuous improvement and promotes collaboration as well. That’s why it's valuable to dedicate time in each meeting for feedback and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to provide their input. By doing so, you can make the most of your time and enhance the efficiency of your meetings.