7 Tips To Make Stand Up Meeting Effective

Are you thinking that a regular stand-up meeting is just a conventional meeting where all the employees have to stand, right?

Wrong! In a stand-up meeting, three key items are being discussed – what employees did in the previous day, what they will be doing today, and which impediments are delaying the project?

Such regular check-ins meetings can be normally witnessed in agile software development world, but it has grown significantly in popularity across varied departments for different types of projects.

Yes, there are various health-related benefits of standing up, but an effective stand-up requires three key things – experimentation, motivation, and preparation. Let me discuss top 7 tips to make stand-up meeting effective.

Are You Seated

If you are, then you shouldn’t be. Ironically, chairs are still a vital part of the daily stand-ups as the team missed the memo regarding why all the team needs to stand.

There are various physiological reasons when you sit that can prove harmful for the meeting. It has been found that the people who often like to sit, they tend to face issues related to retaining long-term information.

Make Connecting Easy And Quick

Let us assume the team is connecting remotely for the daily stand-up, you have to ensure that their day should not start with frustration.

Make sure you go for a video-conferencing option as it is easier for anyone to use, irrespective of the fact that they are on-site or using a smart phone. Following are some of the features you will want to ensure your video conferencing offers –

• Remote screen sharing – Remote employees should be able to share their screen.
• Simplicity – If it is taking you fifteen minutes to organise a stand-up, then it will only end up wasting your precious time.
• HD video & audio – It is imperative everyone should see and hear you clearly.

Concentrate On Three Key Elements

Make sure the concentration is on three key elements –

• Achievements – What have you completed yesterday?
• Targets – What are you doing today?
• Impediments – Is there anything that is stopping you from reaching your goals?

Often people are seen going off topic, but make sure you don’t allow them. You can cut anywhere when you feel the meeting is going off-topic and make the person realise that you are more interested in discussing the topic for which you all have gathered.

Use A Timer 

There are so many theories as how much time should be, ideally, allotted to an employee to answer the above-mentioned three questions of the daily stand-up meeting.

However, recommended time is one minute and make alterations until you have found the right amount of time for your team.

Well, there are chances you may receive pushback from all those people who dislike feeling rushed, using a timer allows everyone to put forward their point of view and it certainly helps in keeping long-winded talks in check.

Stay Focus, Not Officious

The fact cannot be denied that every stand-up requires a leader. It is in the hands of the leader whether to turn the things around and create autonomy or be designated to maintain steadiness.

Standups are made in a way that it caters to only a few topics, but employees should not be ill-treated if the discussion wanders and inventive ideas start to form.

Keep It Small

There are chances that you have number of people in the meeting. Let us assume your stand-up is having more than 10 members, then as per the calculation it only leaves less than one minute for all the members to speak up as it does take some time to begin and finish the meeting, a transition between speakers and tasks, etc.

Maintain Consistency

Efficiency is linked to a routine. Make sure you start your stand-ups at the same time you used to start and waiting for the stragglers is not at all recommended. It is imperative you stick to the format that will prove beneficial for the team.

Author Bio

Sophia Jones tries to live her life like the sun – setting her sights high and vowing to always rise up again. Always game for an adventure, Sophia loves widening readers and her own expectations of our vast, beautiful world. As a journalist, Sophia writes to inform. As a creative writer, Sophia strives to inspire. Overall, she hopes to captivate. She currently writes for sites like alwaysreview etc.

 

Tags: stand up meeting, video conferencing

Category: Business