Meeting Clarity
A few of my favorite demotivators from Despair, Inc. are the ones describing the pointlessness of many meetings, committees and teams:
Meetings. None of us is as dumb as all of us.
Teamwork. A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.
Committees. Just like teamwork. Only without the work.
The humor in those statements illustrates the discomfort we feel when meetings lack purpose and clarity or last longer than they should. You’ve probably been a part of meetings that obscured the solution and created more, not less, confusion.
Healthy Team Meetings
Make the right adjustments to become a good meeting leader. Make staff meetings as much about motivating and encouraging people as about the meeting’s agenda. Be prepared and efficient, maintaining forward momentum. Encourage the team with a summary of what your meeting accomplished.
Consider a few ideas for more effective team meetings:
Meeting Hero (e-book) by Tom LaForce
“Change the Environment to Change the Meeting” on Big Ideas Blog
“9 Tactics For Effective Staff Meetings” by Vanderbloemen
“Remedying Bad Meetings” by Brian Dodridge
“Say No to Meetings” by Andrea Murad
“Say No to Meetings” by Andrea Murad, Fox Business (April 29, 2015), http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2015/04/29/say-no-to-meetings/.
Typical Meeting Formats
Purpose, organizational structure and team dynamics drive meeting frequency and content. Ministry meetings fall into several categories, depending on church size and context. Meeting frequency also depends on church context, with some meetings occurring weekly, while others, such as Global Meetings, usually taking place monthly.
Full staff team meets for global vision and multisite coordination with an Information Purpose. Typical elements might include:
Campus staff teams meet in multisite churches for campus-specific needs with an Information and Operations Purpose. Typical elements might include:
Ministry leads and directors meet with a Lower-Level Strategy Purpose. Typical Eisenhower Matrix elements might include:
Upper level leaders meet with a Higher-Level Strategy Purpose.
Ministry staff meet by area, such as Children’s Ministry Team or Discipleship Team and have an Operations Purpose.
Appropriate staff team leaders meet for event planning or to develop special projects and have a Lower-Level Strategy and Operations Purpose.
Resources
We provide open access tools to help ministry teams lead, grow and serve.