I often get asked about how we structure team meetings at our fitness facilities. I really believe a good meeting can bring a ton of value to the team members and owner if you are looking at the right things. But if it’s a time to hang out and catch up, it can feel like a total waste of time.
Here’s a quick simple meeting agenda…
- Share a Win (Personal or Professional) – 5 minutes
- Headlines (Quick Announcements / Reminders) – 5 minutes
- Score Card (Read Off Key Metrics) – 5 minutes
- Issues List (Problem Solving Biggest Bottlenecks) – 60 minutes
- To Do List / Cascading Messages – 15 minutes
This is a 90 minute meeting and it should be done every single week regardless of how many team members you have. It could be 3 people or 30 people, it’s still extremely important for team communication.
Here’s the reasoning behind each section…
Sharing wins helps your team to connect and know what is going on in each others lives. You learn what people are looking forward to and what makes them feel accomplished.
Headlines are the times to repeat, repeat, repeat. We don’t remember most things until we hear them 3-7 times so you should be talking about things happening this week (for the 7th time) and what is happening in 30 days (for the second time). Keep everyone focused on what is ahead.
The scorecard is one of my favorite parts of the meeting. That’s where you can identify where you are strong and where you are weak. Numbers don’t lie so you can see if your lead flow is slow or sales is stuck or retention is suffering. This is not the part of the meeting where you discuss how to solve it, that’s coming next. If you see something that needs to be addressed, move it to the issues list.
You should have a document shared with everyone on the team where they can share their issues. Things that frustrate them. Complaints they hear from clients. Things that hold them back from doing more. Ideas they have on what can be improved. The bulk of the meeting is set aside to attack issues. The best teams in business are open, honest and discuss problems openly. The worst teams never communicate beyond surface level topics, they never talk about growth and they never problem solve together. People want to have their voice heard and this is the place to give them a microphone and listen carefully.
After you discuss the problems, everyone should be ready to go with a notepad or laptop document where they will be copying down to-do’s. Everyone is eligible to get a to-do on their plate if the issue requires their help. This is where you have to decide who on the team has those “super powers” and can work on this project. Who is the best person for the job? To-do’s should be completed with 7 days (by the next meeting) and if they need longer then they need to bring that up when deadlines are being set for them. The default deadline is 7 days unless they speak up.
I hope this helps you to have constructive and beneficial team meetings.