Have you ever wondered why business meetings are so important? It’s because they allow us to come together and collaborate on projects. But not all of them are created equal. Business meetings come in all shapes and sizes. You might have a one-on-one call with your boss or a team gathering with your colleagues. You might even have a virtual conference with clients or investors. Whatever the case, it’s important to understand the different types of business get-togethers as well as some examples of informal meetings and why they matter. Let’s dive right in!
Why do business meetings matter?
We’re humans. We can’t live without communication. We can’t work without communication. We call, text, and send audios and videos. Why? To stay connected to the world around us, get updates, news, and share ideas swarming in our heads.
Why can’t we live without work-related meetings? They perform the same functions:
1) Foster communication and collaboration
They allow for face-to-face communication between employees, clients, and other stakeholders. This type of communication is crucial for building relationships, resolving conflicts, and making important decisions.
2) Provide the opportunity for networking
If you want to build new relationships or expand your professional network, meeting face-to-face is the best way to do it. This is substantially true for international enterprises, where employees often don’t know people from other offices.
3) Open up new business opportunities
If you’re looking to grow your business, taking part in meetings is a great way to find new leads and customers. Moreover, various online meeting apps, like Whoosh, RingCentral, or Zoom, help to establish contacts with faraway partners and hire true professionals from any part of the world.
So there you have it – three good reasons why business meetings matter. If you want to improve your communication, relationships, or accelerate your business growth, don’t underestimate the power of a good meeting.
5 types of business meetings and how to make them more productive
1) Brainstorming session
Sometimes you feel like you’ve run out of ideas. Your deadlines just don’t care. What should you do? Hold a brainstorming session! This event involves a group of people meeting to discuss, draw out, explain, and jot down ideas to solve a problem or create something new and genuine.
Participants
Usually, brainstorming sessions can be organized by any worker of the company and involve their team members or employees from other departments that are somehow connected to the topic.
Tips
- Try to arrange a brainstorming session when each member feels comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions.
- Remember about the proper structure. Give other participants guide rails that will help everyone stay on track without hindering the creative process.
- Try to create a comfortable environment. If meeting offline, prepare some snacks and tea/coffee. If on the web, try to take short breaks to relax a bit.
2) Status update meeting
When you with your teammates are in the middle of an important project, it’s crucial to arrange regular progress checks – or status update gatherings. These are team meetings in which everyone shares their progress on a common project, demonstrates specific metrics, and discusses challenges or roadblocks they encounter.
Participants:
Such events are often held among team members that work on the same project. Sometimes, a company leader can gather certain teams or even the entire staff to get updates from them.
Tips:
- Try to encourage colleagues to ask questions and address them immediately.
- You can get the most out of such a meeting by running it with an async discussion.
- Get ready to answer questions. For that, come prepared with thorough answers.
3) Planning meeting
When your team starts a new project, you, as its leader, can organize a planning session to create a defined plan, assign roles, set initial tasks, and set a deadline. These are important parts of the workflow because they can give your team a clear idea of what steps they need to take to successfully finish the project.
Participants
Such meetings should involve only those employees who will be working on the project.
Tips
- Build a clear agenda and follow the set schedule to keep everyone in the loop.
- Prepare participants in advance: send invites with the main points that will be discussed at the meeting.
- Stay on topic. This means you should only cover what’s necessary for the project you’re about to start working on.
4) Problem-solving meeting
It’s almost impossible not to face any problems while working on a certain task or project. That’s what problem-solving sessions are for – to find an optimal solution to a problem or reach a compromise that will satisfy everyone.
Participants
Usually, this type of event involves a group of employees, somehow connected with the issue discussed. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to invite some experts that can help address the problem professionally.
Tips
- This type of meeting should be focused on solutions. Once you understand the root cause of the problem, all brains should put their energy towards answering, “How can we make this better?”
- Encourage everyone to take part in the discussion and express their opinion without the fear to be criticized.
- Clearly define the problem. Unfortunately, a great part of such events ends without a proper solution due to a poorly described issue.
5) Team-building meeting
There are many ways you can build team spirit. One way is to have regular team-building meetings. In these meetings, you can discuss team goals, give updates on individual projects, and generally check in with each other. You can also do exciting activities like a virtual escape room that help everyone get to know each other better and have fun.
Participants
When planning a team-building activity, you can invite anyone from your company, even the superiors.
Tips
- Choose a theme that will be enjoyable for everyone.
- Make sure to plan activities that will encourage teamwork and communication.
- Delegate tasks to different members of your team to ensure that everyone is involved in the planning process.
Wrapping up
Whether you’re a fan of them or not, business meetings are a must-have for running a successful business. They’re a great way to get everyone on the same page, share information and updates, make announcements, and brainstorm ideas. And even though more and more businesses are conducting meetings online, that doesn’t mean they’re any less important.
In fact, online meetings can be even more beneficial than in-person meetings in some ways. They’re more convenient, allow more people to participate, and are often more efficient. But no matter how you hold your meeting, the most important thing is that you do it.