Got a meeting coming up? If you’re looking to make meetings more effective and optimise your time, a stand up meeting might be for you. The idea is to hold a meeting that is short, dynamic and straight to the point. Popular among fans of the scrum, lean or agile methods, stand up meetings are becoming increasingly popular and not just in the tech world! Let’s take a look at 4 simple tips for getting started.
Plan your stand up meeting for the start of the day
To properly understand the importance of this timing, let’s look at the meeting agenda. Following a very specific daily schedule, each member of the team takes turns speaking to take stock of:
- Inventory for the day before;
- Progress on the day’s tasks and objectives;
- Possible road blocks or problems encountered.
By definition, it is therefore more logical to start each morning off with this type of meeting. It’s also advised to put time aside in the team’s agenda each day so as to ensure their availability.
Limit the duration of your meeting for maximum efficiency
The ideal duration of a stand up meeting is usually 5 to 15 minutes. Standing is meant to encourage haste, as the position can quickly become uncomfortable. To avoid exceeding this time limit, make sure the rules are clear and understood by all attendees. It’s then up to them to prepare their ideas so that the meeting can run smoothly and not exceed the allocated time.
Feel free to appoint a “time keeper”, who can make a plan and ensure it’s kept to throughout the meeting. They can also signal when the meeting is nearing its end and whether another meeting might be necessary.
Limit the number of attendees in your stand up meetings
This third tip is closely linked to the previous one: too many attendees may risk exceeding the recommended meeting time. Limiting the number of attendees to just the project team also helps to ensure that everyone feels comfortable taking the floor. As team members are invited to suggest solutions to others’ road blocks, limiting attendee numbers helps to keep discussions within the set time limit. Before organising a stand up meeting, take some time to think carefully about who really needs to take part.
Appoint a minute taker to keep a record of the meeting
To effectively monitor the progress of your project, it is essential to write a meeting report. And the stand up meeting is no exception to the rule! For the sake of efficiency and for ease of reading, we advise you to opt for a digital solution. Before the meeting, consider appointing a minute taker who can take notes, this is a key ingredient for an effective meeting! Feel free to rotate these roles every meeting to help keep the whole team engaged.
Beyond the classic written notes, you could also opt for more innovative solutions such as le Tableau or one of the numerous team meeting templates available on Beekast. So many ways to follow the progress of your project over time in a visual, fun and interactive way!
Do you think stand-up meetings might be useful for your business in the context of agile project management? Well we hope that these tips will give you a head start in setting up your own. As we have seen, with a bit of structure and a well-prepared team, all you need is a few minutes each day to take your projects further.
To help make all your meetings more effective, create a Beekast account now!