Team working part 2: Team meetings

This series is exploring a number of the very practical aspects of ‘team work’ and one of the most important principles of working together is: team meetings. Take a few moments to recall how many different types of team meetings you have attended over the past month. Almost certainly the one common to all clinical nurses is the daily patient update and handover at the beginning and end of a shift. Other common ones are the weekly team update, the multidisciplinary clinical meeting, and clinical linking meetings, such as infection control. For some there are regular clinical supervision meetings, professional and teaching seminars, post-incident reflections, and many more. Now ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you enter meetings with keen anticipation?
• Do you leave informed, valued and enthused?

Why do some meetings seem such a waste of time?

Take a few minutes to reflect on two recent meetings you have attended that seemed to be wasting time. Try to identify why you felt that way and compare your thoughts with those below:

• The purpose of the meeting had not been made clear
• Some of the key people needed were not present
• The meeting was held at the end of a shift when you were tired
• One or two people dominated the discussion talking about things not relevant to the topic
• The person chairing the meeting was not in control
• There was no clear agenda
• You were being ‘talked at’ by the manager
• Other people's views were not sought or valued
• Attendance at the meeting meant that you had to stay after your shift to complete clinical work
• The essence of the meeting could have been covered in 10 minutes, but the meeting lasted over an hour.

Are meetings important for team working?

Any management textbook will highlight the importance of meetings for enhancing communication and sharing of ideas; what they seem reluctant to say is that handled poorly, meetings waste valuable resources and can create frustration. Some managers believe that holding a meeting and talking about the latest policy or management initiative is the same as helping staff to understand what needs changing and what areas need focusing on; they think that by talking at their team they are communicating and become frustrated when little changes. Meetings are an important element of effective team working, but the meetings need to be positive, focused and coordinate the right people for the right amount of time.

One exercise I find myself doing at a number of meetings is to estimate each member's hourly pay rate, add the total for the various members at the meeting, multiply by how long the meeting lasts for, calculate how much the meeting is costing the organisation and reflect on whether that is a good use of valuable financial and human resources; sometimes it is, but not all the time.

How can we make meetings positive and useful?

• If you are chairing the meeting then make sure that you and everyone attending are clear as to the purpose of the meeting
• Make sure the relevant people attend the appropriate meeting
• Set an agenda and circulate it
• Make sure people stick to the point
• Involve everyone, try using techniques such as saying ‘everyone has 1 minute to give their view on this point’ then go around the team asking each person by name to give their view, making sure they keep to 1 minute
• Thank people for their views, if there is merit in them ask how they can be taken forward
• If people start ‘moaning’ then try to deal with that positively, ask if others have had similar experiences, and if so explore how it can be dealt with in a positive way
• Let people know how long the meeting is due to last and stick to time
• Try to avoid sending out the agenda with 10 attachments, each of which will take an hour to read, and then expecting all to come to the meeting having read them. Think about how you could handle this in a better way, perhaps ask a different person to read one of the attachments and present a 3-minute summary to the team
• Try to make sure that there are some positive parts of the agenda in which people are thanked or good news is shared
• If possible have some drinks for the meeting.

Think of meetings as you would any other nursing practice: assess the need, plan what is going to happen—the why, where and for how long. Implement the plan and make sure everyone is involved, any outcomes negotiated and appropriate action identified. Then evaluate the meeting and reflect on how it could be improved next time.