In the world of virtual work and remote teams, it’s crucial to ensure that meetings are efficient, focused, and productive. In this blog post, we will discuss two essential post-meeting tactics that will help your remote team stay on track and make the most of your virtual gatherings.
How to Master Your Post-Meeting Routine
After you’ve successfully held a virtual meeting, it’s essential to have a structured follow-up process to keep your team organized and on the same page. Implement these two steps after every meeting to boost productivity and communication.
Step 1: Share Meeting Minutes with Your Team
Once the meeting has concluded, promptly distribute the meeting minutes to all attendees, as well as those who could not participate. This ensures that everyone has a reference point to look back on and is aware of the decisions made during the meeting.
In addition to sharing the minutes via email, consider uploading them to a centralized document repository for easy future access.
While some may question the effectiveness of meeting minutes, they can serve as a valuable resource for tracking issues or for projects that require strict documentation.
Step 2: Send a Follow-Up Summary with Action Items
After the meeting, it’s crucial to follow up with a written summary that emphasizes the assigned tasks, the responsible team members, and their respective deadlines. Although these action items are already included in the distributed meeting minutes, sending a separate summary email ensures that everyone is clear about their responsibilities.
One efficient approach is to send an email containing the action list and attaching the meeting minutes as a document (in MS Word or PDF format) to keep communication streamlined.
Recap: Pre, During, and Post-Meeting Best Practices
To ensure the effectiveness of your remote team meetings, follow these steps:
Before the meeting:
- Identify the need for a meeting
- Establish clear objectives
- Determine the appropriate attendees
- Develop a comprehensive agenda
- Send out invites, agendas, and reminders
During the meeting:
- Appoint a meeting leader
- Follow the agenda
- Stay on topic and manage time
- Record meeting minutes
- Close with a review of key points
After the meeting:
- Distribute meeting minutes
- Send a follow-up summary with action items
By implementing these strategies, you will optimize your remote team meetings, improve overall productivity, and foster a happy and cohesive team environment.
If you’d like to learn more, check out “Influencing Virtual Teams”
