Boosting Team Connection: Meeting Makeover for the Return-to-Office
In a post-pandemic world, the hum of office chatter and the clinking of coffee mugs are making a comeback as organizations across the globe embrace a return to the office.
Research on productivity during the pandemic and the era of remote work is mixed. While some studies suggest that remote work can boost productivity due to reduced commuting time and flexible schedules, others highlight the struggles caused by blurred boundaries between work and personal life, leading to burnout. The "State of Remote Work" report by Buffer and AngelList found that 32 percent of remote workers identified distractions at home as a major challenge, but 20 percent reported higher productivity compared to working in an office.
The trend toward returning to the office is resulting in many disgruntled employees and unhappy teams now being forced to rearrange both their work and personal lives. If you’re a team lead or a project manager faced with bringing team members together during this time, consider having a team-norming session to help re-establish working relationships and set new agreements for how your team can be successful.
A team-norming session looks different for each team but usually covers some or all of the following:
Vision, goals or mission statement building
Agreeing on team values and agreements (i.e., ground rules)
Clarifying team structure, roles and responsibilities
Establishing norms for communication (i.e., text, email, call, etc.) and decision-making
Determining how to store and manage information
And our favorite… establishing clear meeting rhythms
It’s important to consider the best medium when communicating with your team. Sometimes, a simple text or email is great, while other times, misinterpretation or missed messages can lead to conflict or delay in productivity. For help with this, check out This Meeting Sucks, Season 2 Episode 2.
Creating New Meeting Rhythms
Meeting rhythms define the types of meetings a team uses, when and how frequently they meet, how long to meet for, what to meet about, who needs to be there and what needs to be prepared in advance. Whenever a new team comes together or experiences significant change—such as a return to the office after years of working remotely—meeting rhythm establishment should be a top priority.
There is no secret recipe for meeting rhythms. They are unique to every team and require a process to find the right ingredients. We recommend a process for establishing meeting rhythms in our podcast This Meeting Sucks, Season 2 Episode 3.
Here is a review of the process to help teams that are caught up in the return-to-office trend.
Step 1: Find a Time and Location
Carve out time for the meeting rhythm establishment process with your team. You’ll need about an hour to have this conversation effectively. If you have team members participating both remotely and in the office, make sure you’re in a location and using a program where everyone can see and hear each other well.
Step 2: Find a Way to Collaborate Visually
If everyone is in person, get flipcharts or a large wall chart for the group to fill in with markers and pens. If some or all participants are online, create a shared document such as a Google Doc or an online whiteboard using programs like MURAL or Canva that everyone can access and add to simultaneously.
Step 3: Create a Template
Create a five-column template on your flip chart or inside the shared document. You’ll need columns for:
Meeting type or title
Frequency and duration
Location (in person, online, etc.)
Who attends
Focus
For tips on creating visual templates, check out our blog post and online course.
Step 4: Inventory your Current Meetings
Existing teams should start by taking inventory of your current meetings. List all the types of meetings you currently have in the first column. If you’re a new team, invite team members to consider what types of meetings would help them do their best work.
For example:
Weekly Update Meetings
Daily Stand-ups or Scrums
One-on-One Check-in or Feedback Meetings
Ad Hoc or “As Needed” Meetings
Step 5: Document the Existing Meeting Procedures
For each meeting, include their frequency (ex., weekly on Mondays) how long they are and the location. If you’re not sure about something, leave it blank. If you’re a new team, skip ahead to step nine and fill in the rest of the rest of the columns with your ideas.
Step 6: Define the “Focus” of Each Meeting
Invite the team to define the focus of each meeting. For example—”the focus of our daily tag-up is for each team member to briefly share what they will work on that day.”
Step 7: Note the Attendance of Each Meeting
Identify who is (or should be) attending each meeting.
Step 8: Make Changes
If you hear complaints or notice inefficiencies, grab your red marker—or the virtual equivalent—and start making notes. Listen closely to help the group identify needed shifts to how you meet.
For example:
Do you have more than one meeting for the same purpose?
Could any meetings be combined?
Do you have too many people attending just to be “informed,” and could those meetings be reduced to key decision-makers or action owners?
Are important players missing from any meetings?
Do the times and dates of each meeting still work?
In other words, invite the team to red pen everything that’s not working and offer suggestions for changes.
This process can be a grind, so remember to practice patience. Invite criticism, but always ask, “What would you suggest?” And if they say, “I don’t know,” invite other suggestions from the team.
Step 9: Create the “To Be” Current State
If you’ve red-penned the bananas out of your template, you may need to start a clean page to document the newly revised version of your current meeting structure and then pivot to consider what else would be helpful. Creativity is encouraged!
For example:
With a team that is half remote and half in the office, are there structures in place for “virtual water cooler” time, such as instant messaging or scheduled informal “co-working” meetings?
For teams that dread being locked in the office, are there any meetings that could be “walking meetings” for a chance to get outdoors?
Establishing or revising your meeting rhythms is your team’s opportunity to feel good about how they work together and communicate in a new or changing environment. Effective meeting rhythms can make the difference between a team that hates their day-to-day and one that enjoys coming to work and seeing their co-workers.
If your team has a creative way you’ve adapted your meetings during a return to the office, let us know! Share it with us in the MeetingMakers Facebook Community, tag us in a post on LinkedIn or send us a message.
