Teams can stay connected with an excellent monthly rhythm without having to attend too many meetings.
Teams can stay connected with an excellent monthly rhythm without having to attend too many meetings.
Kim Clark, a Babson College management professor, says that a bad meeting is one in which you talk about a problem but never solve it.
Your work style, the amount of variation each day, and whether most of your team are in the same place will determine which unit you choose.
Everyone will feel overwhelmed if your team crams all of its work into one meeting. A poor cadence can lead to disorganization and hinder teamwork. It is important to choose the right cadence for your situation and team.
You need to think about two things before you choose the meeting time that is best for your team. First, consider how often you have work to talk about, and second, how long people need to be available to participate in the next discussion.
These are some different ways to meet. Which is your favorite? It’s up to you and your team to decide which one is best. We recommend that you do not mix cadences. Let’s first discuss the cadence.
What’s a Monthly Cadence?
A monthly cadence describes the schedule of meetings your team meets every month. It can become an integral part of the team’s functioning and work together if done correctly. It connects people across time zones and helps keep projects moving forward even when they aren’t there together.
A monthly meeting can be a benefit for teams working with shorter timelines or changing goals. An example: Agile development teams must adapt to customer feedback or quarterly financial meetings.
Quarterly Meetings
This is a good meeting time for teams working on long-term projects and having consistent goals (ex. marketing campaigns, rebranding efforts).
Weekly Meetings
Weekly meetings can be beneficial for teams that are geographically dispersed or have fluctuating goals. It is a great idea for teams who spend a lot of time in meetings and want more consistency once they wrap up.
Daily meetings
Daily standups are the best option for teams that meet regularly but don’t need to have another meeting. Some dev teams work with agile scrum masters located in different locations, while others are spread across the country or around the globe.
If the team plans on spending more time in meetings, we recommend that they keep it to a maximum of an hour. Remember that your availability and work schedule will impact how much time you can spend in meetings.
Get Started with a Monthly Caden
Identify the purpose and goals of the meeting. What is the purpose of this meeting? Define the reasons you need a meeting schedule and the specific goals it will assist you in achieving. This is particularly useful for teams that are working on different projects and have different timelines.
Make sure to let team members know when meetings will be held. Set the expectation that everyone will be available on Friday, at 3:00 pm, if you have to hold weekly standups. Do not ask people to make it if you don’t know their availability.
If possible, delegate more than one person and allow everyone to take control of their time. By doing this, meeting attendees will be able to know when they are expected to attend and plan their time accordingly.
Determine who should be there. On some teams, for example, the product manager is present at every status meeting, while all team members report directly. Some teams have a more casual atmosphere to which everyone is invited, but it feels more like a conversation than a meeting.
You can expect team members to be late or cut off so set clear times. You can then turn off the timer or at least disable it and let people arrive when they are able, as long as they don’t arrive too late for the necessary part of the meeting.
The level of detail that needs to be shared should determine the length of the meeting. You may only need one hour to update status updates if the meeting is a high-level, monthly cadence. If you work on projects that have specific goals, it could turn into several meetings per week (business analysis or design, for instance).
Monthly Recommended Cadences
If you have a long timeline and clear goals, quarterly meetings work best. Because they can be time-consuming, it is important to keep the agenda short with enough detail so that everyone gets an update. The quarterly meetings are aligned with company planning processes, making it easier for team members to understand why they are needed.
Monthly meetings are ideal for teams with shorter timelines and flexible goals. Because there isn’t enough time to go into detail, it’s a good idea to start by giving an overview of the topics that need to be discussed before you commit everyone’s time. If there’s nothing new to report, you can wrap it up quickly.
Although weekly meetings are most common in agile teams, they must be done correctly if they are to function effectively. Weekly meetings should be focused on the outcomes and allow team members to determine if their deliverables are on track. These meetings are a great way to talk about what’s needed to be done if there is no way to do it.
For teams with short time frames and constantly changing goals, daily meetings work best. These meetings are short and require little time. You won’t have to spend more than 10 minutes per day. If necessary, daily meetings can be used to discuss specific projects if it is communicated to team members.
Your team can stay connected with the right meeting pace without having to hold too many meetings. You can research the time splits of other teams to find out what works for you. This will allow you to choose the one that gives everyone an equal opportunity.
How can you give your monthly cadence a head start?
It all comes down to context.
To create a new cadence, your team must be doing things differently. It doesn’t mean you have to change from one time-based cadence or another. Maybe you can just modify your meetings to be more efficient.
If you are having trouble with your weekly standups of 30 minutes, break them down for 10 minutes each, or every other day during the afternoon for 20 minutes. People can catch up on progress and blockers without having to dedicate an entire hour.
Once everyone is on board, you can move on to a different cadence. You might switch to daily standups one month and then move on to 15-minute biweekly check-ins the next.
You can try different cadences throughout each year to ensure that your team is not complacent with one particular structure.
Steps to an Effective Standup
Start small if you have trouble convincing everyone to use stand-ups. Try 10 minutes per day, instead of 30 minutes every other week.
If your team works remotely, encourage them not to use chat or phone but to check in via video. It will feel less like an interruption and more like they are required to attend the meeting. They won’t be as likely to run away.
What’s the next step?
After you are comfortable with the 10-minute update, try different types of standups. Try daily meetings for a week to see how they impact your team’s productivity. If this doesn’t make a difference (and it probably won’t), talk to your team about their expectations from this cadence.
Sometimes it is not easy to know which meeting format will work best for your team. Your team can discover what works for them by trying different arrangements throughout the year and then figure out how to make it work in their particular context.
How long is an Effective Standup?
Once you have established a meeting schedule, it is time to get everyone on board with the idea of keeping meetings short. Standing ups should not exceed 10 minutes. If they go on for more than that, team members may become distracted and lose track of the schedule. This is why it’s better to hold standup meetings twice per day than once per week.
Structure your daily standups around these four key points:
1. Set the agenda.
2. Check yesterday’s task list (if applicable).
3. Discuss today’s tasks.
4. Tomorrow’s task list should be set.
It can be overwhelming to attend too many meetings. However, you don’t have to go to more meetings to achieve your goals or communicate with your team members effectively. All you need to do is change your behavior in meetings to make them more productive.
A daily standup may be scheduled for your team’s first reporting period. However, if not enough time is available for everyone to speak up, it could be a missed opportunity.
3 Things to remember about the Monthly Cadence
Fair warning: Most teams won’t find it realistic to report monthly. Monthly meetings are not useful for all companies because of three reasons:
1. It takes too much time to get everyone on the same page about what needs to be done each month. It’s difficult to make daily progress if everyone isn’t clear on their priorities from the beginning.
2. Reporting projects can consume a lot of time for one person, so you will need to spend more than an hour each month reviewing and giving feedback. This means that there will be fewer high-leverage meetings throughout the year and fewer unproductive ones.
3. This cadence won’t allow for group discussions on long-term strategies or other topics that could take more than an hour to discuss. These high-level discussions should be held once a quarter.
How frequently do you need to meet?
This is one of your first tasks as a leader. However, it’s also one of the most difficult questions to answer. It is important to have enough meetings for everyone to form opinions about the tasks and goals that are being accomplished during each reporting period. However, if they take too long it will cause a decrease in morale and prevent them from actually working.
It is a good idea to check in with your team at the very least once per week. If you have trouble keeping everyone on track or on task, try meeting daily.
What is the best Meeting Cadence for you and your team?
You can test two different meeting times simultaneously if you are having trouble deciding which one will work best for everyone. This sounds like this: Have everyone meet every week, but each person will give a 30-minute update instead of just five minutes. They can then share their accomplishments in detail. This will enable team members to do more work without needing to attend too many meetings.
If this sounds appealing, they could also meet for 15 minutes each day to reevaluate their priorities. This type of standup shouldn’t last more than 10 minutes.
It is not practical to hold weekly meetings for more than one person. This is because it takes too many people too long to provide detailed updates and then it takes too much time to discuss the details. Instead, a daily pace is best to keep meetings short and promote a fluid, agile environment.
Which type of meeting cadence is best for you?
This will depend on the goals of your team. A phrase like “quarterly”, for example, doesn’t give you any information about how frequently your company will hold meetings or how long each one will last.
It is a good idea to discuss your plans with everyone, even non-managers. This will help you to understand what pace works best for you and why. If they have to miss a meeting because of work or personal events, it won’t be a problem.
You want to be a leader and plan the best meeting times for your team. Also, check in with them often (at least once per week). This will ensure that your company is moving in the right direction and allow everyone to make mistakes, without spending too much time in meetings.
