One of the challenges usually experienced while handling sprawling projects is keeping everyone on the same page and having them work as one cohesive unit.
Many project managers try to tackle this by organizing daily stand-up meetings, usually at the start of each day, or deploying instructions through collaborative tools. However, these methods have their challenges. Team meetings can veer off point, become unnecessarily long, and cut into time better spent on productive endeavors. At the same time, many tools can get some messages lost in translation.
Fortunately, there are other ways you can get your team working in sync without the risk of wasting unnecessary time and risking miscommunication. One of those ways has been through having project management stand-up meetings.
This post gives you some proven tips on how to run daily standups for team members from different time zones.
What is a stand-up meeting?
Stand-up meetings are brief meetings a team holds before commencing their daily tasks. Contrary to what the name implies, stand-up meetings are not necessarily held standing up; instead, the name reflects the meeting's duration as opposed to the posture of the meeting's participants.
Usually, many team stand-up meetings last between 10-15 minutes, with participants limited to addressing only three questions to hasten things up and cut right to essentials. The three questions are usually relevant to the specific team's deliverables, but the most common questions are:
- What were yesterday's tasks?
- What are today's tasks?
- What roadblocks are preventing you/will prevent you from performing those tasks?
Although problem-solving standup meetings can be physical, they are often held virtually. As the world becomes more of a global village, it is not uncommon for these meetings to involve participants across several time zones. Daily standup meetings are an essential feature of agile methodology and are consistently used by software management and scrum teams. However, you can implement this strategy if your entire team wants to share status updates quickly and run an effective meeting to share progress reports.
How daily or weekly stand-up meetings work
The stand-up meeting format is usually simple. The meeting is often set up by a facilitator or meeting leader (the project manager, department head, or a stakeholder) who arranges the venue and decides the time and frequency of the meetings- usually, stand-up meetings are better when held daily.
Co-located teams can meet in a conference room or office, while hybrid or remote teams can use an interactive platform like Cloudpresenter. The facilitator also ensures that every team member is present and that they keep to the agenda of the meetings. Each team member is given an equal opportunity to speak. As they answer the three set questions for the session, the facilitator notes their replies and identifies potential roadblocks to be addressed at the closest opportunity.
The meeting can be adjourned once each team member satisfactorily answers their questions and actual or potential roadblocks have been successfully thrashed. Additional matters may be discovered after the meeting.
Tips to make your stand-up meeting effective
The significant problem with virtual meetings, even stand-up ones or one-on-one meetings, is that they always have the potential to be detailed. If you're the facilitator of a stand-up meeting, here are some tips that can help you keep each session efficient:
- Ensure that the meeting time works for all participants, especially if it is a remote team. It is also important to keep the stand-up short to make sure everyone is fully engaged.
- Ensure that the short meeting venue is accessible to everyone on the team. However, this depends on the type of meeting and the size of your team.
- Set the meeting agenda and ground rules to limit distractions; you can do this by banning phone use or multitasking while the session is on.
- Subject to all unexpected arising in the parking lot. Parking lots can be reviewed after the main aim of the meeting has been accomplished.
- Be resistant to any uninvited party, especially when they try to introduce topics outside the agenda. Instead, delegate their issues to another meeting, if necessary.
- Always record your meetings, as they can serve as a reference point. And that's the best way to ensure that everyone gets value from it, especially the rest of the team members who could not attend.
Benefits of successful stand-up meetings
There are several benefits of stand-up meetings. You may experience some things when your company runs a daily stand-up meeting.
- Stand-up meetings give the tasks at hand a sense of urgency, which can boost productivity. Effective use of stand-up meetings daily also helps ensure everyone stays on track.
- Regular stand-up meetings provide a quick, effective communication channel for team members to share important updates about the work.
- These meetings, especially daily ones, help team members rapidly align their work with each other.
- Quickly identifying and addressing obstacles to the work will increase the speed of delivery.
- As your team members interact and work on tasks beyond their desks, it can boost team morale and foster collaboration even without meeting to discuss in person.
- Struggling core team members can get needed assistance much quicker than when meetings are held farther apart.
Conclusion
Stand-up meetings are quick and mostly held daily, remotely, or in person. They are very effective when teams use time-sensitive tasks and can help teammates align their work with other team members. A facilitator or meeting leader often oversees the meeting and ensures that all points are covered without unnecessary deviation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of a daily stand-up meeting?
The primary purpose of stand-up meetings is to help distributed team members align their goals when trying to deliver time-sensitive goals. This is why you should consider hosting stand-up meetings every day.
How are stand-up meetings different from regular meetings?
Regular daily meetings last longer and are less laser-focused than stand-up meetings. While regular meetings can last 30 minutes to an hour, stand-up meetings do not last more than 15 minutes.
What type of teams benefit more from stand-up meetings?
Although stand-up meetings can work for any team in most situations, they are more effective for teams with time-sensitive goals. These include scrum teams and software development.
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