Apply Lessons from Stand-Ups to Team Meetings

A few ways that you can use Stand-Up lessons to make all your team meetings better

It was only a few years ago that most people had never even heard of stand-up meetings. Now it seems like we can't go anywhere without seeing (or participating in) another stand-up!

The idea is simple: gather a handful or more people together in a room and conduct the entire meeting with everyone standing. No one sits down, not even the person running the meeting. They're just as likely to be on their feet as anyone else.

Does this sound like an unruly mob? Most people's experience with stand-ups is positive when they’re done correctly. A good stand-up has some key benefits that you might not realize.

6 Benefits of Stand-Up Meetings

  1. Improves Collaboration
    Stand-ups are a great way to encourage better collaboration. The one person running the meeting isn't in charge of what anyone else says, so there's no pressure to give a valuable contribution. This permits people to speak up when they have ideas or information, even if it isn't directly related to their primary job function.
  2. Helps People Feel More Involved
    No one likes to sit in meetings where other people seem to make better contributions and get better feedback than they are. Stand-ups give everyone a better chance to speak up, leading to better collaboration and better ideas overall.
  3. Encourages Feedback
    The lack of pressure at a stand-up also gives people the opportunity to offer valuable feedback on each other's contributions at the meeting. This is great for helping people grow professionally and better understand what they contribute to the team.
  4. Better focus on goals
    Since stand-ups are short (typically 15 minutes or less), they encourage a better focus on goals. Everyone can stay up to date with the right level of detail. This kind of structured time helps better focus on outcomes and results.
  5. Improve participation in team activities
    Stand-ups are also a great way to better encourage better participation from people across the company in upcoming events, flash sales, or other initiatives that may need support from multiple teams or departments. By doing stand-ups in public with key members of each team (or even better, every team), the rest of the company better understands that they can play a role in contributing to these events and are more likely to get involved.

These all sound like the kinds of outcomes that we would want from our all-hands and staff meetings. What lessons can we take from stand-up meetings to apply them to some of our most important internal meetings?

Applying Stand-Up Lessons to All Hands Meetings

Not every rule of stand-up meetings is appropriate for staff meetings. We're not going to require everyone to stand for meetings or hold one every day. But here are five lessons that do apply:

  1. Short but meaningful
    Stand-ups are best when kept relatively short so that everyone remembers what happened at the meeting (what was discussed and who brought up issues or ideas) better. The same principles can apply to your staff or meeting. It's a more meaningful experience if it lasts only 15 minutes or less.
  2. Focus on one topic at a time
    Staff meetings are usually long, infrequent events where we pack a lot of information into one meeting. Stand-up meetings are short and focus on immediate, short-term goals. This leads to better collaboration, better feedback, and better overall participation.
  3. Regular time and place
    Stand-ups are better held at the same time and place every day (or week, or month). This ensures that all members of your staff can attend every meeting. All-hands and team meetings should be held regularly as well—not only so everyone knows what to expect but also because better participation comes from better attendance.
  4. Be prepared
    Stand-ups go better if everyone has done their homework and is prepared for the meeting. Encourage better preparation for your staff meetings by making sure you have clear goals, a good format to follow, and strong leadership.
  5. Give everyone a voice
    Staff meetings typically have a top-down presenter approach, with more coming from executive leadership than on-the-ground staff. Stand-ups give everyone on the team a chance to share their updates. A hybrid approach to your all-hands can allow more people from your team to share experiences, building trust and engagement.

How Breve Can Help

Breve can help internal communications teams build better staff meetings. Leverage pre-recorded video segments to build asynchronous meetings, get feedback, host Q&As, and improve your meetings every time.

Host your first meeting for free.
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