What is the ideal meeting time for remote teams? This is a difficult question for managers to answer. There is no one right answer because every team has its own needs and constraints. This template can help you determine the best meeting frequency for your team.
Meeting schedules are an important part of remote team communication. There have been times when you tried to figure out the best meeting frequency for your business or your team members.
How often should remote teams meet?
What is an asynchronous update and what is a synchronous meeting?
How to determine how many meetings are necessary
To keep teams focused on a common goal and keep everyone informed, meeting cadence templates are used.
How often should your remote team meet?
What is an asynchronous update and what is a synchronous meeting?
How to determine how many meetings are necessary
It might seem that you should meet more often with your team members. However, it can be counterproductive to your work momentum and efficiency if you meet too often.
However, it might be difficult for teams to meet more often or feel disconnected from their colleagues.
If you have more than five remote team members, it is a good idea to meet with them at least once per week. This is the “Daily Standup” or daily check-in meeting.
The meeting should last no more than 15 minutes and should be held right after your team members arrive at work to allow them to get fresh air from their morning routine.
Another type of meeting you might consider is the weekly check-in meeting.
The meeting should last no longer than 30 minutes. This allows team members to prepare for weekends. After checking in on what they did at work, what they plan to do this week, and any challenges or obstacles they have encountered recently, the meeting cadence template should be completed.
You might consider not only meeting weekly with your team members but also meeting more often as necessary or requested by certain team members depending on the project type and size.
If your remote team is involved in a large project and needs constant team communication, as well as updates between many people, it might be a good idea to meet more often.
This is especially true for freelance or outsourced projects, where regular meetings with remote team members may prove to be extremely helpful in keeping everyone up-to-date and informed.
You can also consider the size of your team, the type and location of your project, and how often you meet with them.
If remote teams don’t know each other well or haven’t worked closely together, but they need to communicate more often about a specific topic, then it might be necessary to meet face-to-face until everyone feels comfortable communicating online.
Meeting locations can have an impact on meeting frequency and cadence for remote teams.
It might be harder to meet up with team members if you don’t have a common place to meet or if they live in different time zones.
Meeting with remote teams should be a top priority. Even if this is only asynchronous communication at the beginning, everyone will soon feel more comfortable communicating online.
This will keep your work momentum high, and it will give you an idea of how frequently you need to meet them face-to-face based on their project type and size, meeting locations, and meeting preferences.
Each firm will have its requirements and a different meeting format
It is up to you to decide whether the meetings should be asynchronous with delayed responses or synchronous (in person).
Everyone on your team should know what’s going on. However, you want them to be able to work independently.
These are just a few examples from common meetings, and how often they happen.
A weekly meeting schedule for one-on-1 meetings
Quarterly Meeting Cadence: All Hands
Every day there is a standing meeting.
Leaders Teams: Meetings are held one month.
If you want to create a great meeting rhythm, there are some important things you should consider.
These are the five questions to ask before you request a meeting.
We like to ask these questions before we set up a meeting.
1. What’s the purpose of the meeting?
Does this template have the purpose of providing new information to key players or keeping the team informed?
This article will cover the topic of information seeking vs. giving information. However, it is always a good idea to ask this question when you start a new cadence.
These are just a few examples of how this question can influence the frequency of meetings.
2. Is it possible for this meeting to be held simultaneously?
If you are doing a quick check-in or update, think about the information and time it will take. This is in addition to the time.
Take into account the back-and-forth scheduling. There is preparation before the meeting and then there’s the actual meeting.
Remote or distributed teams have greater freedom and don’t need to rely on the same old defaults. You can think of ways you can adapt to the new work environment.
Meetings involving large projects or critical decisions may require many stakeholders to weigh-in in real-time. This is easier to do in person or via a Zoom call.
Meetings that are motivated primarily by updates should not be scheduled for an in-person check-in.
These are best done asynchronously and can be done more often if necessary.
The new project meeting’s goal is to launch a marketing initiative.
Weekly check-ins are included in the meeting schedule for a status update and next steps.
Standing-Up Meeting Goals: Weekly updates with the manager or team leader Meeting Schedule: Daily stand-up to review project progress.
3. Do you consider this to be a time-sensitive or high-priority project?
Some initiatives will be prioritized due to tight deadlines. These initiatives will only be known by team leaders who will be able to select the frequency of check-ins.
We have found that the more urgent a task is, the more often you will be required to complete it.
4. Are these meetings often longer than the time allowed?
Meetings shouldn’t be allowed to go on for longer than necessary. If meetings feel cut short, it could be an indicator that they should be held more often than they should.
It can be difficult to sit through meetings lasting more than an hour. However, a regular pace could help you get more done.
5. Are these meetings void of interesting topics?
If you don’t have much to share in a daily check-in call, merge them into a weekly one and make those updates asynchronous, rather than in-person.
You can personalize your questions and specify the frequency they will be sent. Then, you can have them distributed to all members of the team or a select few.
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Meetings: What’s The Difference?
If you have determined that one project has an ongoing cadence and that another has a weekly check-in cadence, it doesn’t mean they must be formatted in the same way.
When choosing the format for your meeting, it is important to decide if you will be information seeking or information sharing. This is a crucial step in deciding how to check-in.
Meetings to gather data can be classified under one of these categories:
The kickoff meeting for a new project
Meeting of the project team to discuss the next steps
Meeting with the management team to evaluate the performance of the teams.
One-on-one meetings with a direct reporter to discuss objectives and tasks
These sessions are open to all who want to learn and share their experiences. These meetings can be held in person or over Zoom.
These could be used in information-gathering meetings:
1. Daily stand-up routine
2. A status update
3. Annual report of a company
Jamie Morganstern, Director of Business Development at ICANotes, says that “we don’t need to be in meetings very often.” We use meetings to work through strategy and higher-level planning, but not for information transfer or updates.
Email is the best way to communicate information to your team.
To reduce low-value meetings, and to allow everyone to concentrate on being productive and enthusiastic about work, the goal is to choose the best team meeting format and cadence for your company.
Meetings work better when there are fewer people.
This list might make you think, “Huh?” It seems that I only need one in-person meeting per week. This is not possible …”
It may seem irrational or even absurd to cut meetings, especially if your staff has been oriented around them for a long time. However, the facts speak for themselves.
Research shows that meetings account for 15% of an organization’s time. Imagine dedicating 15% of your time to projects that increase your company’s revenues. You will have more money, but fewer meetings. It was an easy victory.
A shocking 73 percent of participants admitted to multitasking during meetings. Your employees should be able to spend more time doing work and less time listening.
A Doodle poll found that poorly managed meetings can cost businesses billions of US dollars each year. Billions.
Now let’s go one step further. You’ve learned how to create a great team meeting cadence that has fewer, but better sessions.
Let’s ensure you have everything you need to make every meeting productive.
4 Meeting Do’s & Don’ts
There are many ways to make meetings more productive. But here are some best practices that you can use right away.
1. Create a schedule.
So everyone is prepared, make sure they know what you will cover.
2. Don’t forget to ask questions at the end
Use Slack, email, or both to follow up on any concerns. There is never enough time in a meeting to address all the concerns.
3. Invite only the most important people for a meeting
Communication is easier in smaller groups.
4. Do not exceed the time limit for the meeting
You can’t allow meetings to drag on interrupting workdays or causing people to lose their concentration.
Try a different meeting format if you fail to succeed the first time.
We’re trying to show you some best practices for setting up meetings, but how you communicate internally as a group will depend on the size of your company and its culture.
Brian Whalley (cofounder of Wonderment) believes that concise communication is crucial in a startup environment.
He said, “There are only four people today,” and suggested that there might be one daily group meeting. Every day starts at 10:30 a.m. Check-in. This usually lasts about 15-20 minutes.
For small teams, daily check-ins are very helpful. However, for larger companies, it can cause disruptions in the workweek.
Brian says, “We also want a track of the larger trends of what our team is doing and how it’s progressing. We have a recap meeting in which we talk individually about what went well, the things that didn’t work well, and what we want to be changed for the next two weeks.”
Making Your Meeting Cadence Template Better
It’s the beginning of the week. Your calendar is open on your computer. You will spend half your week on meetings, Zoom calls, and Google Hangouts.
It is hard to believe that so many of these meetings are necessary.
This is not a feeling you’re alone in. We believe that having fewer meetings and better teams is the key to a more productive week and happier employees.
This can be achieved by setting a meeting schedule and creating a framework.
Automate your daily status updates and stand-ups. Ask questions of your teams, give weekly CEO reports, and be aware and informed about your team’s weekly priorities.
