Team Collaboration – The Importance of Meetings
Meetings, most of us immediately think, “waste of time”, but team collaboration is essential for any business organization and the importance of meetings can’t be discarded.
Meetings are something most of us deal with weekly, sometimes daily, and to say that sometimes we do not understand why they are happening is possibly putting it lightly.
However, not all meetings should be like this. Bad meetings seem pointless, but worthwhile meetings are important. This piece will discuss the importance of a worthwhile meeting and how a business and its employees can benefit from them.
Using Meetings for Better Collaboration
It is true that meetings can help facilitate effective collaboration that back and forth work emails just cannot. A space where employees can get together and brainstorm is extremely important to the success of any project, and a meeting can often not only facilitate that but get everyone up to scratch with each other’s ideas, thoughts, and visions on progression. This collaborative nature can help colleagues come up with ideas they might not have thought of before while bouncing off each other.
Body posture, facial expressions, and gestures are all important to understanding each other and feeling comfortable – all of which are lost over email. This means a meeting can really open up the chance for better collaboration.
The environment in which the meetings are held should also be a consideration, as a small, cramped, or dark room can be pretty uninspiring. For businesses based in Australia, consider a conference venue in Adelaide. Not only is the location stunning, but there are excellent rooms that are bright and spacious with inspiring scenery. The perfect view to get the brain juices flowing!
Use Meetings for Strengthening and Building up the Team
Another important aspect of meetings that can so often be missed is using them for strengthening and building up the work team.
A meeting creates an excellent shared space where everyone can listen to each other, especially those in authority, and voice any concerns or feedback they might have. It is important for a team to listen and understand each other to establish trust, which will then, over time, improve morale, teamwork, and bring team members closer together.
Having a meeting facilitates the idea of a ‘shared mission,’ which can encourage team members to be more team players and supportive of each other. Sharing a sense of purpose drives this collaboration and team building, which can only really be done face to face, with everyone willing to listen and compromise.
Use Meetings for Resolving Issues
Yet again, another excellent reason for having a meeting is because some things are just solved much better face to face than they are over email. It is extremely easy for something to become misunderstood over email, and it is also hard to read tone and intention. Meetings take out a lot of the room for misinterpretation, which can only be a good thing when it comes to business.
Body language is yet again a vital part of conflict resolution, as are many non-verbal cues, which is why meetings are essential for resolving any issues, or potential issues. Having a meeting in person will always help situations become deescalated far faster than any email or other method could do!
Use Meetings for Boosting Creativity
Creativity is essential to the diversity and pull of a business, and often, businesses can facilitate creativity through a meeting. Depending on what the project is, it is wise to think outside of the box. Get out of the office and into a new place for a new perspective, and help create important engagement and discussions amongst the group.
It is extremely easy to be passive in meetings, just writing notes down and not having any discussions, which is hardly the best format for inspiring creativity. A good combination of a meeting used to boost creativity would be a mixture of a venue that is different than usual and a format that facilitates interaction and cooperation amongst a workgroup.
Some examples of this could be inspiration tours, where companies can organize visits to other businesses or places that relate to work projects, to see something fresh, and help create new ideas. Internal events are also a brilliant way of facilitating a creative space, as work teams have both the familiarity of the workplace, but a new dynamic offering both different people, information, and a change of scenery.
Use Meetings to Highlight Employees Value
A great use of a meeting is to use it to focus on the employees themselves. It has been suggested that around 30% of employees feel undervalued at work, which can impact negatively on a business for a few reasons. Those who feel undervalued are less likely to go above and beyond or put in the extra effort. It is also possible for an employee’s quality of work to go down. When a meeting with the objective of highlighting each and every team member’s role in an up and coming project, it is much easier for employees to see and appreciate what they are contributing but also what their team members are contributing to a project too. This is great for morale, which, if low, can really affect both quality and quantity of work.
It is also important that during a meeting, all tasks are explained clearly to everyone involved. Employees will feel value knowing how they are contributing to a bigger goal, which can help motivate an entire workplace.
Use Meeting to Save Money, Time and Effort
A useful and productive meeting should be able to save money, time, and effort in the long run. This is because everyone has the chance to know exactly what is going on, all at the same time and in the same place. Not only does this leave less room for mistakes, which can be both time and financially costly, but it also helps keep everyone’s efforts up, as there is nothing like taking the wind out of someone’s sails by telling them they have missed the mark on something. These can all be avoided with a well thought out and thorough meeting.
