Effective Team Meetings

Video Transcription

In this tutorial, we'll explore some strategies and tools that contribute to effective team meetings. We'll discuss tips regarding the agenda, the meeting itself, the minutes, and performing an evaluation of the meeting. Let's get started.

Let's begin by considering how you can make your agenda more effective. First and foremost, you should use a consistent format for your agendas in order to increase effectiveness and productivity of your team meetings. Create or select an agenda format that works for your team and then consistently use that same format for every agenda.

To build an effective agenda, facilitators should consider several factors. First, agenda items should be aligned to the school improvement plan or to the team purpose or to both of these. Next, the agenda should follow all of the agreements of the PLC, including the team's norms. Items should only be included on the agenda if they truly must take place during the team meeting. Items that can be addressed in other ways should not take up valuable meeting time.

On a related note, the facilitator should ensure that the agenda allows adequate time for every item to be addressed. And finally, the agenda should make it clear to team members what they need to do either in preparation for the meeting or as a result of the meeting.

There are some items that should be included on every agenda, including your team's norms, the district goals and school goals, and, finally, for both the overall meeting and for each item on the agenda, you should indicate the topic, the time, the responsible person or people, and the purpose.

Next, let's closely examine meeting procedures that will support effective teamwork. Each meeting should begin with a review of your team's norms and expectations and with a brief review of the agenda for the meeting. During the meeting, team members should focus on engaging in productive dialogue that is ultimately student centered. The team should always be considering how their actions might impact student learning.

Finally, there are several techniques that will support productivity in your team meetings. Try to engage all members of the team in the discussion. Provide clear direction and expectations and adhere to norms at all times. Work towards consensus in your discussions and be sure to establish expectations for team members for the time between meetings.

Next, how can you make your meeting minutes more effective? Well, obviously, you should begin by selecting a note taker who is skilled at taking good notes. In the minutes, the note taker should not only record the specific progress made during the current meeting, but the meeting minutes should also include the next steps, including the people who are responsible for those next steps.

So a complete set of meeting minutes or notes will include the agenda items that were covered, a summary of the discussion that was held around those agenda items, any decisions that were made by the team, and, again, those next steps and who is responsible for them. The notes should be provided to every team member after the meeting.

You can use a plus minus delta chart to monitor the effectiveness of your meetings. After each meeting, you can record your reflections in the chart. In the plus column, you can jot down what went well during the meeting that you think is helping you to reach your goals. In the minus column, you can write down what didn't go so well during the meeting or what might be preventing you from reaching your goals. Finally, in the delta column, you can brainstorm ideas for things you can do differently during the next meeting in order to be more productive.

I've shared with you some tips for making your team meetings more effective. Now it's your turn to stop and reflect. Try using a plus minus delta chart to reflect on a recent team meeting. What could you do to help make your next team meeting more productive?

For more information on how to apply what you learned in this video, please view the Additional Resources section that accompanies this video presentation. The Additional Resources section includes hyperlinks useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.