How To Run a Weekly Staff Meeting That Doesn't Suck

Recently, I've been coaching with a couple of fundraising leaders around the topic of the dreaded weekly staff meeting.  You know the one: boring, sleepy, and life sucking!  The one where the team leader does all the preparation, runs the meeting, and walks out with all the monkeys on his/her back.  Sound familiar?  

Not anymore!  Want your weekly staff meeting to go from sucky to snappy?  Here's how:

1) Review Action Items and Commitments From Previous Week

-No judgement.  Did you do what you said you would do.  If so, what result?  If not, why not?

-Builds trust, commitment, accountability, and transparency for everyone.

2) Lightening Round (create an agenda on the fly)

-Go around the table.  Everyone declares his/her top three/four priorities for the upcoming week.  (These are the BIG ROCKS, not every little meeting or calendar item)

-Each individual can add agenda items on the white board for group discussion.  Best if an admin serves as scribe on the whiteboard.

-Group prioritizes by first urgent/important, then important, then urgent.  Make sure you get to the meat first and not be at the mercy of the urgent.

3) Potential Ad-Hoc Topics

-Every now and then an agenda item comes up in the weekly staff meeting that is so big it requires a separate ad-hoc meetings.  That ad-hoc meeting could be a 1:1, involve several (but not all) members of the team, may require other folks to be present, etc.

-You do not want to bog down the weekly staff meeting with a topic so large that it requires and entirely separate meeting.

-Admin usually takes the action item to schedule the meeting with the necessary individuals after the staff meeting.  It could take place that very same day, or be scheduled for later in the week.

4) Decisions/Actions

-Admin/Scribe reads out all significant action items/commitments (who does what by when) and any important decisions taken.

-Admin/Scribe circulates Decisions/Actions/Commitments to all staff immediately after the meeting.  This becomes the first order of business for next week's meeting (see #1 above).

5) Cascading Messages

-If there is anyone in the staff meeting that has people reporting to him/her, and there were decisions taken that affect those folks, it is very important that information is passed along to those folks by their manager. 

-Getting clarity around this is important.  "Manager X you're doing to let your team know that....."

-Can be added to Actions above.

Added Bonus: Each week rotate who runs this meeting to each member of the team.  By doing so, you offer opportunity for professional development and strengthen the leadership capacity of your team.

I'm indebted to Russ Sabia at the Table Group (http://www.tablegroup.com/consulting/consultants/russ-sabia) for initially suggesting the basic outline of this structure, as well as Laurie Bellero, Rajiv Hota, Kate Norton, and Spencer Reynolds at Princeton who enthusiastically embraced it.