Article

5 Tips on How to Conduct a Productive Meeting

August 01, 2024

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Emily May

Meetings are a space to get important things done–it’s where agile teams ideate, iterate, and exchange feedback. Because meetings often lay the groundwork for most organizational efforts, we must strive to elevate productivity in these sessions as much as possible. 

The leaders lucky enough to discover how to promote productivity within their team meetings often arrive there through trial and error, which takes time. We hope the tips in this article propel your team's productivity efforts–to maximize organizational results and value delivered to the customer.

This article highlights five actionable tips for agile leaders to conduct more productive meetings.

What is a Productive Meeting?

The phrase “productive meeting” is often used in various contexts, so let’s establish a clear meaning. A productive meeting refers to a group’s ability to progress collaboratively toward a shared goal or desired outcome within a given time block. 

Facilitating productive meetings doesn’t mean sacrificing team comradery–authentic exchange should always be encouraged. Instead, a team’s ability to develop and stick to meeting objectives is the difference between low and high-performing teams. 

Productive meetings provide agile teams with a myriad of benefits, including:

  • Ability to adapt & problem-solve quickly
  • Improved stakeholder outcomes
  • High customer value delivery
  • Effective team communication
  • Time & budget savings


Agile teams strive for improvement in all business areas to promote improved outcomes for internal and external stakeholders. As it applies to meetings, continuous analysis of team meeting efficiency provides context for further refinement, leading to productive meetings that result in more value delivered to the customer. 

5 Best Practices for Productive Meetings

cartoon of zoom meeting

Experiment with ICAgile’s go-to team meeting ideas to keep your group focused and on track. 

1. Set a Clear Goal for Every Meeting

Always define the terms of the timebox, and encourage your team members to utilize this practice whenever possible. By setting a clear goal to be accomplished within the given timeframe, attendees are aware of how to prepare for the meeting and how to budget their time effectively. 

Most professionals have experienced what it’s like to sit in a meeting with no clear goal. Attendees leave the setting feeling like they lost time and could have been more effective by working on a project or task on their to-do list. Make a distinction regarding the purpose of the gathering, as blurred lines can cause a lack of direction and productivity. 

2. Emphasize Facilitation

Effective facilitation is a key component of a productive meeting. A facilitator's job is to keep the meeting on track, ensuring the agreed-upon goals, meeting structure, and timebox are adhered to so that participants can focus on engaging with the material. 

An organizational leader or team lead can act as the designated facilitator or consider challenging other team members who are up to the task. The ICAgile team takes turns facilitating the weekly iteration meetings for our two-week sprints, providing an opportunity for all to build their leadership skills. 

If you or your team need to brush up on your skills, consider reserving a seat in our Agile Team Facilitation Certification course. 

3. Design Your Meeting Ahead of Time

cartoon of facilitators designing the meeting

The meeting organizer or facilitator should invest time in the session's design ahead of time, focusing on elements such as structure, flow, collaboration exercises, and agenda. 

For example, let’s say your organization is meeting to strategize goals for the coming year. Rather than throwing random ideas into the ether, an effective way to approach the complex topic is to organize ideas by job function or business objective. 

By mapping out the meeting beforehand, attendees stay on track and can easily organize thoughts and ideas to help the collective group achieve the desired goal.

Pro tip: consider distributing a team meeting agenda template to your team for a streamlined approach to organizing meeting material. 

4. Engage Your Team

When engagement is a top priority, agile teams will get the most out of their meetings. Facilitators should incorporate exercises and conversations within the meeting design to involve all meeting participants and offer ample opportunities for input. 

Developing team meeting ideas that emphasize engagement can be especially challenging for remote organizations. However, with many collaboration tools at our fingertips, geographical distance is no longer a barrier to engagement. 

For instance, our fully remote team uses a digital collaboration tool called Mural to hold engaging brainstorming and informational sessions with plenty of opportunities to incorporate team exercises across the infinite digital canvas. 

5. Cater to Diverse Learning Styles

cartoon of a meeting showing graphs

All professionals have different learning styles, just as some people prefer to read books while others enjoy listening to podcasts. Presenting information in a way that caters to a range of learning preferences enhances understanding and encourages participation from all team members.

A good rule of thumb is to incorporate several elements into your meeting design, such as conversation, music, videos, and illustrative exercises. This practice also helps support a more inclusive environment, improving team morale and contributing to higher productivity. 

Conclusion

Through intentional planning, design, and facilitation, organizations can promote productivity and collaboration in their team meetings and deliver more value to their customers. We also encourage agile leaders to experiment with new ways to invite more vitality into their meeting spaces.

Are you ready for a new challenge on your learning journey? Follow us on LinkedIn to stay updated with our raffles, where you can enter to win a seat in one of our courses. 

We hope to meet you in a class soon!

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TAGGED AS:
Learning Excellence, Agile Team Facilitation, Agile Product Ownership

About the author

Emily May | ICAgile, Marketing Specialist
Emily May is a Marketing Specialist at ICAgile, where she helps educate learners on their agile journey through content. With an eclectic background in communications supporting small business marketing efforts, she hopes to inspire readers to initiate more empathy, productivity, and creativity in the workplace for improved internal and external outcomes.

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