8 Elements of an Effective Staff Meeting
Let’s be honest.
Most of us don’t love staff meetings.
They are often boring, too long, and sometimes even irrelevant. And yet, we all know that staff meetings are a must if our teams are going to have any chance of staying on the same page.
Here’s the good news: staff meetings don’t have to be terrible. In fact, they can be constructive, compelling, and even fun.
Staff meetings don’t have to be terrible. In fact, they can be constructive, compelling, and even fun.
Here are some key elements that I would suggest.
1. Establish a consistent rhythm
Having a set date and start/stop time for your staff meeting allows for better planning by everyone involved. In the church I led, our meetings began at 12:00 each Tuesday and ended by 1:30. ALL staff were expected to prioritize these 90 minutes.
We decided to use the first 30 minutes to eat lunch together. On some occasions, it was “brown bag” day. On other occasions, volunteers would prepare a meal for the staff. We also periodically treated the staff to pizza.
The staff was reminded about that week’s lunch plan the day before when the agenda was sent out.
2. Send out an agenda.
One of the leadership lessons I’ve learned recently is that not everyone thinks like I do. That might sound like a “duh” comment but hear me out. I’m an external processor and a loud thinker. In other words, I make my mind up on new ideas by talking them out with other people.
I’ve discovered that others don’t do this at all. They decide how they feel about ideas alone, in the privacy of their mind. They are internal processors and quiet thinkers.
Here’s why this matters: If your team learns of the meeting agenda when they sit down at the table, all of the external processors will dominate the conversation as they process ideas out loud.
This will automatically exclude the internal processors. They will feel undervalued and you will miss out on their important contributions.
What’s the solution? Publish the agenda before the meeting. Do it at least the day before so that your internal processors have time to prepare.
As you put together the agenda, ask this question: Is this for everyone? One of the quickest ways to kill momentum in a team meeting is to include agenda items that don’t involve everyone present.
One of the quickest ways to kill momentum in a team meeting is to include agenda items that don’t involve everyone present.
When topics are brought up that don’t involve everyone, the individuals who aren’t directly involved will mentally check out. And once a person checks out it is difficult to reel them back in.
If the agenda item isn’t for everyone, do yourself and your team a favor and have an off-line conversation. By taking this simple step, you will ensure that team members feel like staff meetings are a valuable usage of their time.
3. Connect Relationally
The first element of a great staff meeting is relational connection. That’s one reason why we always ate lunch together.
As the meeting begins, you might also want to consider asking a question to encourage personal connection. (This would have been noted in the agenda that was sent out.)
Here are a few examples:
Does anyone have a birthday this week? (We always sang a goofy birthday song to celebrate our colleagues.)
What were the highs and lows of your weekend?
Tell us about the best Christmas, vacation, or summer of your life.
What is something that’s happened in your life lately that we can celebrate with you?
4. Review the monthly calendar
We did this on the first Tuesday of every month. Going through logistics isn’t fun, but when all team members are present, it’s best to walk through major church events happening in the next four to six weeks.
5. Team highlights and challenges
During this time, every team would share that which could be celebrated – breakthroughs, victories, and answered prayers. As well, they would share where they were facing difficulties, running into barriers, and found themselves needing prayer.
6. Reinforce Your Values
The engine of an organization is its vision and values. When all team members live and breathe the vision and values of an organization, the results can be incredible because everyone will be running in the same direction.
The engine of an organization is its vision and values. When all team members live and breathe the vision and values of an organization, everyone will be running in the same direction.
As many have said, “vision leaks.” Assuming you have taken the time to define and communicate your values, consider using your team meetings to reinforce them.
Here are some examples of how to do this.
Focus on a different value each month. Remind the staff why that value is important.
Ask them to share examples of how they are seeking to live out this value personally.
Ask them to tell stories as to where they are seeing the church live out this value corporately.
Assess whether this value needs to be freshly underscored and brainstorm ways to do that.
7. Leadership Development
If one Tuesday a month you focus on values, on another week, make the focus on leadership development: TED Talks, podcasts, book discussion, skill enhancement such as the DISC or enneagram.
Many staff members don’t engage in any systematic personal development on their own. You can use your staff meeting to offer that.
Learning together can also give you common language and experience to build upon.
8. Significant problem solving
Here’s why most staff meetings are boring: The agenda items aren’t compelling. In other words, there is nothing at stake.
Here’s why most staff meetings are boring: there is nothing at stake. Great team meetings allow everyone to participate in a discussion on something that really matters.
Great team meetings allow everyone to participate in a discussion on something that really matters. Thus, once a month bring up an item that invites the entire staff to grapple with.
Here are a few examples:
We need to decide if VBS is the best ministry strategy for us or if it’s time to switch to backyard Bible clubs.
We have $20,000 left in our Missions budget. What is the best way to use this money?
We are experiencing a significant “back door” loss of people. How can we put more “glue on the floor” to get folks to stick?
What kind of office hours should we keep during the holidays?
When you allow for a team discussion on issues such as these, everyone gets that sense that “we’re all in this together.” Be sure to draw out the introverts, asking their thoughts. You don’t want to miss their unique perspectives and great insights.
Well, there you have it. 8 Elements for Effective Staff Meetings. I’m sure these aren’t exhaustive. I’d love to hear what has worked in your staff meetings in the comments below.
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