The Value of Team Communication

Good communication is integral to your business and business success.  We live in a world of emails and texts – but there is still a real need for verbal communication.

In the workplace, good communication is an important factor in client relationships, team effectiveness, and employee engagement.

Do you have regular Staff /Team Meetings?  How do you communicate with your teams?  If you don’t have regular meetings – you are missing a huge opportunity to bond with your team, connect with your team and drive engagement.  

Now don’t get me wrong, we have all attended meetings that have been a royal waste of time.  I’m sure we can all agree that there have been meetings we have walked out of complaining “that was an hour of life we will never get back” – am I right?  Meetings need to be planned and provide a value for those attending.  

Spend time on the initial planning; ensure consistency, they need to be scheduled, there should always be an agenda and honour your time commitment to your team.   Want to make them more engaging?  Involve your team members; assign certain topics to employees to speak on.  Is there a development opportunity here?       

 Remember to:

Set a schedule: consistency is key – same day/same time weekly/monthly – don’t move the time around.  If an emergency arises – it’s better you cancel and give everyone that time back into their calendars.  Be respectful.  If you cancel and reschedule meetings on a regular basis you are creating a perception that meeting with them is not important and they will show you that same respect in return and your meetings will not be well attended or productive.

Set a time: whether a 5 minute huddle/15 minute Stand up meeting or a full hour sitting in the conference room – begin and end the meeting on time

Have an agenda: if you have regular meetings it is a good idea to have a standing agenda.  Set rules – no cell phones, no answering texts or emails, no side conversations.  Give items in your agenda a set time and stick to it – don’t let the conversation go off topic

Cover Key topics : “What’s new”, celebrate successes, safety, budget, project updates

End with a roundtable 

I can’t stress this enough – respect time – stick to your schedule.  If an item is brought up and does’t fit in to the time allotted and is not urgent – “park it” on next agenda or commit to dealing with it in an email.  If an item doesn’t bring value to the whole group, take the question/item to a “one on one” conversation after the group meeting is complete.  

Meetings don’t need to be time prohibitive – have a 5 minute huddle every day, a 15 minute “stand up” meeting once a week, or whatever would work in your business.

Don’t think meetings are important to your business and your team?  Ask yourself why some of the biggest most profitable businesses have huddles everyday (some have more than one a day).  Now I’m not saying you have to end with a cheer 😉  but seriously these businesses understand that the time invested increases profits and engagement and they dedicate time required for those meetings and so should you.

Plan your meetings – virtually, on a conference call or in person.  It’s important to PLAN and COMMIT to having them regularly.