top of page

Mastering Monthly Team Meetings

claire3291

Monthly team meetings, when done well, are vital for aligning leadership, fostering collaboration, and driving progress toward organisational goals. But how do we level up the quality of these meetings as we scale? Let's dive in.




Do Monthly Meetings even matter?


Monthly meetings are important to team productivity, forming part of the communication rituals and meeting rhythms that help organisations execute consistently and stay on track with their quarterly priorities and strategic plans.


Monthly Meetings are also important to organisational autonomy, capability building and developing a high-functioning middle management.


As we scale, there are more decisions and founders and C-level make less of them. Without these meetings, middle management can feel less confident or capable of taking on more decision-making, leading to bottlenecks and leadership burnout.


As the company grows, it may become harder for everyone to remain connected with the company's core purpose and core values, leading to uncool behaviours and less motivation in tougher times.


When run well, these meetings can develop and empower middle management, improve productivity, enhance cross-functional communication, and ensure the company scales without overwhelming its leaders.


Here’s how to level up your monthly meetings to be more productive and impactful.


1. Define the Purpose and Structure


If you already have mastered a good agenda and rhythm for your Quarterly Planning sessions and Weekly team meetings, Monthly meetings should be additive in value to these in the following ways:


  • Reinforce company values and culture.

  • Facilitate knowledge transfer and training.

  • Encourage problem-solving and decision-making.

  • Monitor progress against quarterly goals.


2. Craft a Thoughtful Agenda


A well-structured agenda sets the tone for a productive meeting. Take one of your weekly meetings and extend its duration. Consider some example agenda points for an extended 3-4 hour session below:


First Half:

  • Personal Check-In: Start with good news to connect on a human level.

  • Core Values Review: Discuss behaviours that align with company values and rate them.

  • CEO Update: Provide strategic context and set the meeting’s focus.

  • Senior Management Updates: Share progress on key quarterly and annual targets.

  • Manager Show & Tell: Short presentations (5-10 mins) sharing results, best practices, and lessons learned.


Second Half:

  • Big Issues Discussion: Managers share challenges; leadership identifies patterns.

  • Problem-Solving Session: Collaboratively tackle a significant issue to strengthen decision-making skills.

  • Training Segment: Share internal or external knowledge to support growth.

  • Action Review: Document and assign action items with clear ownership and deadlines.

  • Closing Round: Each participant shares one word or phrase reflecting on the meeting.


3. Foster Engagement and Accountability


  • Encourage Open Dialogue: Create a safe space for honest conversations. Start the meeting with sharing something personal or a vulnerability-based exercise to connect as humans.

  • Focus on Wins and Challenges: Celebrate successes and acknowledge hard problems. Particularly important for leaders to acknowledge their own mistakes or lapse in judgement, along with successes. This makes it okay for everyone else to do the same.

  • Document Actions: Use tools like shared scoreboards and traffic light financial and other measurable and prioties so it's easy to track action items and ensure accountability.


4. Develop Middle Management


The Monthly Meeting is an ideal forum to help transfer knowledge and DNA of "how we do things around here" to middle management.


Not all middle managers may be involved in Weekly or Quarterly Leadership Meetings, so including them in part or all of the Monthly is an opportunity to build a resilient middle management layer capable of operating independently.


This prevents leadership overload and ensures that company DNA permeates all levels. Incorporate regular knowledge sharing, cross-departmental collaboration, and training and presentation opportunities for managers to enhance their decision-making abilities.


5. Iterate and Improve


At the end of each meeting, ask for a brief reflection on how the team felt they performed in terms of the quality of discussion and decisions in the meeting.

Refine the format and agenda and adjust based on team needs to maintain relevance and effectiveness.


Final Thoughts


  • Scaling communication rituals and meeting routines shouldn't mean just more meetings or communication touchpoints. Both the cadence and the quality of meetings should improve.

  • Effective monthly meetings aligns and energises teams behind strategy, develops next generation leadership and organisational autonomy, and helps accelerate growth.

  • By investing time and thought into structuring these sessions, organisations can empower managers with the DNA and transfers knowledge of how decisions get made. Encouraging both operational problem solving and strategic thinking, that thrives in a cohesive, high-functioning team.

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page