10 steps to effective Agile meetings that feel great!
Thank you to Startup Stock Photos for kindly sharing this photo on Pexels
10 steps to effective Agile meetings that feel great!
We’ve all been there: bored in a meeting that we can hardly wait to end, wondering “why am I at this meeting?”. The most common negative argument I hear from teams adopting Agile is that “there are too many meetings”.
After discussing why they feel that, I always discover the same reason: the problem is not connected with the number of meetings, but with the poor quality of the meetings. Bad meetings are not only a waste of time and energy but also affect the morale of the team and even the relations among team members.
Still, despite clear consequences, tolerating bad meetings is quite common in corporate environments because it is so hard to pinpoint what goes wrong. That is why knowing how a great meeting looks like is a good thinking tool because it makes us aware of the areas we need to improve as facilitator or participants.
Clear, meaningful agenda.
A great meeting starts by having a clear agenda: why did we gather today here? The agenda is meaningful, it is connected with a higher purpose and ideally with the overall strategy of the company, long term goals. The agenda is specified before the meeting so that the right expectations are set and members join prepared. Also, it is important to mention the expected outcomes: decision needed, feedback provided, free discussion with conclusions, brainstorming with the top 3 ideas voted.
The right people at the table.
A great meeting has participants with different areas of expertise and perspectives, able to share ideas in a constructive way. The number of participants is not too high (“let’s invite everyone”), nor too low which requires yet another meeting to involve other stakeholders. According to Agile principles, the best size of the audience is 6+/-3.3.
The flow of the discussions is well facilitated.
During great meetings, participants share openly their point of view in a respectful manner, there is a constructive conflict of ideas leading to superior insights without damaging the relations between members, disagreements are encouraged and treated with curiosity, fully appreciated as opportunities to challenge approaches to the common goal. Discussions do not extend to off-topics arguments for prolonged periods of time. Everyone is involved, all opinions are heard and considered.
Participants come prepared.
Meetings do need some preparation: an idea is presented to receive feedback on it, working software demonstrated to reveal progress, or certain thinking tools are used to engage everyone. Quite often the main preparation is done by the facilitator, still, in great meetings, different participants have already assigned themselves different topics on which they come well prepared.
The right time.
Yes, this is a difficult one. The time at which the meeting is scheduled affects the productivity of the meeting. Also, the day of the week and even the period of the year. Great meetings rarely happen on Mondays mornings, at 8:00 am or on Fridays late in the evenings, not to mention 24th December or other public holidays. When working in international teams, the timezone difference creates a new challenge. A good strategy to approach it is to "share the pain": not the perfect time for them, not the perfect time for us, but OK for everyone.
The right duration.
Many meetings sacrifice effectiveness for efficiency: many topics are put in that it becomes almost impossible to respect the schedule, not to mention having some breaks. Agile is proposing timeboxed meetings, meaning having a maximum duration, the meeting can be shorter but not longer. Being successful on it requires a whole new set of skills to be learned. Daily Scrums are the best ways to practice! It becomes obvious the need to filter out the topics that do not require all the participants, to be concise and prepared, etc.
The location/The virtual communication environment.
A great meeting usually happens in an appropriate space, having the needed facilities as a whiteboard, working projector, good natural light, isolated from disturbing noises, good internet connection, coffee closely available, etc. Sometimes, great meetings happen in spaces that are not common: like in the next cafeteria, in a conference space or offsite. The unusual setting emphasizes in a subtle way the importance of the discussion and increases participants’ engagement. When it comes to online meetings, a short test of the communication tool and internet connection is needed before the meeting and clear demands for appropriate microphones/headsets and cameras.
The 3Es: Energy Engagement Enthusiasm
Great meetings have inspiring topics that stir enthusiasm and also bring novelty. Everyone feels involved, listened, appreciated, contributing to building something greater than one can build alone. That is why, there is great positive energy in the room, which can be felt even afterward.
Fun.
Great meetings have a spice of fun. Sometimes it is simply the character of the participants who can easily combine serious arguments with small jokes, it can be different amusing pictures that were prepared in advance or laughing together on silly mistakes. No need to shy away from preparing the fun part: I recall a great trainer who kept us an intensive training for 3 days. He had prepared a funny short movie for us to watch every two hours. It worked, we all survived 24 hours of PowerPoints with a smile on our faces!
The achieved results.
Great meetings end with a big feeling of accomplishment. The results are superior to what any individual member could have done alone, it is fully agreed, it is something to be proud of.
Conclusion and next steps:
Next time you attend a boring meeting, please empower yourself to break the cycle of similar meetings by proposing at the end a 5 minutes Retrospective on the meeting itself. Ask all participants to anonymously evaluate the meeting on these 10 criteria. Take the one with the smallest score and brainstorm for one improvement for your next meeting. A team member will volunteer to make that happen.
We don’t have to tolerate bad meetings forever, we can transform them into what their purpose is: amazing opportunities for achievement, growth, and joy through collaboration. Such improvements in our work life will keep us going in the long run, full of enthusiasm saying “I love my job”, “I love my colleagues” or “I love Agile”.
