What's one tip you have for effective team meetings? Please explain why.

My number one tip for an effective team meeting is to prioritize collaborations and recognition. Highlighting the collaborative efforts of the team, getting reports from pairs or trios, etc. all show how the group works as a team. Seeing how each part of the team works and where everyone is at really unites the entire group and encourages productivity. Recognition needs to be a part of that process for teams, as well as individuals when appropriate.

One thing that plagued our team meetings for a long time was people talking over each other. While one person was making a point, someone else would interrupt and jump in to politely disagree. Then the initial speaker would counter, before someone else would jump in with their thoughts. Meetings quickly spiraled into uncontrolled debates and off-topic ramblings. Thus, to tighten our meetings back up and keep things efficient, I looked to a very old tactic: the talking stick. For centuries, Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest would use a physical stick as a right to speak. They would sit in a circle and pass the stick around, giving the holder the right to speak, and preventing others from interrupting. It may sound rudimentary holding a physical baton to talk, but I can tell you from experience, it works. So long as you can enforce the rule and make sure interrupters get scolded, it’s highly effective for keeping discussion on point and efficient.

With a well-defined list of etiquettes in place, managers can facilitate meetings that are a lot more productive and time-efficient. These include encouraging members to mute their microphones when not in use, or using the chat tool to clarify their questions rather than interrupting the speaker. While they may be small changes, there's no denying they can make a huge impact on the quality of your meetings, especially when everyone follows suit.

A defined meeting goal is the key to success, no matter if you lead the meeting or just participate in it. Having a clear objective–or direction, at least–gives the team members a chance to get well-prepared, with focus on what is relevant and needs to be treated as a priority. It also allows the person in charge to structure the meeting and plan its all stages. Additionally, the more the team knows about the goal, the better they are at identifying possible obstacles, finding solutions to overcome them, and developing new ideas on how to work effectively.

• Begin and end the meeting with an alignment of action points and accountabilities. The most effective meetings are where everyone knows the purpose of the meeting, who is accountable for what, and a clear direction for the next steps. It is necessary to start the session with an agreement on what needs to be accomplished during the meeting and end it with a clear understanding of what everyone involved will be doing after the meeting adjourns. You cannot afford people to feel like they wasted time attending a discussion of information that could have been an email. Focusing on actionable points is one of the most effective ways to ensure efficiency.

Assign meeting roles. When everyone has a job, team meetings run much more effectively. To get started, I'd suggest assigning a leader, recorder, timekeeper, and devil's advocate. These roles should be switched on a regular basis so everyone has a turn to be actively involved. It also encourages people to think differently than they're used to. With assigned roles, you'll see an increase in efficiency and engagement.

Ask questions that encourage discussion. Create an environment that allows them to voice their thoughts and opinions, and maybe have breakout sessions during meetings so that people can discuss things together and present them to the team. You never know what great ideas your team may have unless you provide the opportunity to voice them.

For remote and hybrid workplaces, recording virtual team meetings enable team members to review the important matters discussed. This strategy is very helpful, especially when there were late attendees and absentees, keeping them on the same page even if they missed the meeting for some reason. With easy-to-access digital recordings, managers don’t have to spend time explaining things all over again to those who were not able to join the meeting, saving time and effort, and improving productivity.

Never send emails or work on other tasks during a meeting. This communicates to others that it is acceptable not to pay attention or that the meeting is irrelevant. It also implies that you are unappreciative of other people's efforts and contributions to the discussion. Furthermore, when you multitask during a meeting, there is a good chance you will miss essential elements of the discussion. This implies you will have gaps in your understanding of what happened or what was decided, which will lead to misinterpretations, lost opportunities to provide clarifications or direction, or failure to carry through on commitments. Eliminate the tendency to multitask during meetings by reducing meeting lengths and scheduling meetings on days when everyone is actually prepared to devote their undivided attention.

Team meetings are only as effective as you are in holding the attendees’ attention, therefore it is important to schedule regular breaks to allow people to recharge. With the advent of technology and short format information forums, our attention span has dropped significantly, with some studies showing that it has declined by as much as 25% in just the last few years. Breaking up the meeting time with short respites, surprise celebrations, or even a fun snack time, can allow your team to regroup and refresh. In addition, varying the locations, such as a more relaxed off-site setting, can also re-energize your team and keep them engaged. By scheduling breaks in regular intervals, you can make certain that when the meeting is session, you will have your team’s complete attention, as well as enthusiasm.

The biggest pitfall of most organizational meetings is that they tend to stray off topic which ultimately costs your team precious time and energy. To counter this it's always a good idea to create a well-defined agenda that will set your meetings up for success. Your agenda should clearly define the main objective behind scheduling the meeting and briefly outline everything that you wish to discuss. Doing this ensures that all members have enough time to prepare and identify questions or matters that they'd like to talk about. At the same time, it allows you to drive the conversation towards a common goal and eliminate room for distractions or unnecessary conversation.

The best leaders listen more and talk less. They ask engaging questions and open the floor up for debate and feedback. This empowers people to feel included in the decision-making process, and the outcome is that they'll be more vested in the success of any ideas to which they contributed. So, make it easy and safe for people to challenge ideas in a healthy way, and you'll get more out of your meetings.

Start off a meeting by urging someone in attendance to give praise to someone else for their performance. It’s a good way for colleagues to recognize each other’s accomplishments, which goes a long way toward fostering a team-first culture. Positive feedback from peers is always welcomed. It's an effective way to kick off a meeting and get things started on an upbeat note.

Make sure you have a clear objective for your meeting and a goal you are trying to reach. Nothing is worse than a meeting that doesn't seem to have a clear purpose or end up with the desired outcome. If you have clear expectations set and communicate those initially, you are more likely to have a conclusive and compelling meeting.

One of the best ways to start a team meeting is to ask your team if there's anything they'd like to discuss. This immediately makes the environment collaborative, and gives your team a chance to discuss their overall experience at the company. Remember, employee experience is one of the most important factors in ensuring good quality of work. Giving your employees a platform to voice comments, concerns and questions can give you insight into the current state of your time, and possibly inspire you to change certain things about your business processes. No employee should leave a meeting feeling like they've been talked at for hours. Instead, make it a dialogue.

Having a shared running doc that everyone can access and add notes to during the meeting is great to keep everyone engaged and on the same page. Doing this plus recording the meeting so people can reference is an added bonus. The shared doc is the best way to keep meetings effective and productive.

Start your meeting by clarifying the purpose of it and setting expectations- what should you and your team discuss and take out of this meeting? Then get to the point. Pay attention to what people have to say: their feedback, thoughts, and what they would like to change or improve. Make notes, if necessary. Discussions are the most valuable means of improving performance. Developing a qualitative work environment and effective meetings requires an understanding of what your employees need.

My one tip for effective team meetings is to make sure that the team meetings are focused on just the people who need to be there. I know it may seem innocuous to include people who are not in a direct position to execute on an action item from a meeting, but it's very important not to do so. For example, I recently was in a meeting about whether or not we should implement new software. While I was in the meeting and I was involved in the decision making process, none of my direct reports were included. It turned out that we had four different options, and they all had different amounts of time that needed to be invested. This wasn't something that could be communicated through email—or even over the phone—but it didn't make sense for us to go over this at length when my direct reports weren't involved in the decision making process. Including too many people in a meeting can often lead to confusion and unneeded stress on employees.

If you are running a team meeting virtually, share presentation slides as you are presenting. You can include bullet points that summarize what you intend to discuss as well as some pictures to make the slides more appealing visually. This can allow the team members to better understand what you are discussing in case they lose track. Furthermore, you can send the presentation slides to your team members afterwards so that they do not forget about anything that was discussed.

The best way to have an effective, efficient, and productive meeting is to prepare everyone involved ahead of time by sending an agenda to their emails. By doing this, team members know what is expected of them and can prepare accordingly. Likewise, if there are points that require further clarification or additional before the meeting, these can be discussed in the email thread. Team meetings with clear guidelines, focus, and even allocated time/schedules are less likely to veer away from the focus of the meeting. Members also have enough time to brainstorm, prepare their questions, and plan their reports accordingly