Meetings...

    Today I meet with our entire Team for our Ministry Team Meeting. We meet every Wednesday from 2:30 to 5PM. I LOVE meeting with our team! We have a TON of meetings in the different pockets of  our teams here at Mountain Lake. Here's the cool part: I can absolutely say that virtually every great decision we've ever made at our church, has been in a meeting. We have definitely found our strength in what we do together in Team Meetings at Mountain Lake! However, over the years, I have learned a TON about what makes a good meeting and what makes a BAD meeting. I'll share these here:

• Celebration. At our meetings, we celebrate people: b'days, anniversaries, and the guys who have knocked it out of the park recently. 

• Vision. Vision leaks. Staff people tend to forget WHY they're doing what they're doing. Meetings are a GREAT PLACE to remind them of the vision behind WHY they do what they do. We call it Belong/Become Time, because that's our mission!

• As the senior leader, do NOT stay for the entire meeting. It's not good for me to be at the FULL TEAM meeting for the entire meeting. It stifles what people are really thinking and keeps me in the details TOO MUCH. So my being at our FULL TEAM MEETING is for the purpose of loving on my team and investing into them from a vision and leadership perspective. Then I leave the meeting and turn it over to my Exec Pastor. He handles the communication, the details and gives assignments from there.

• Make the Team communicate. At our FULL TEAM MEETING, all of our major departments of the team communicate what they're working on  in just a few minutes, so everyone knows at least A LITTLE of what each others' doing. This keeps us from forming silos on our team! 

• Take minutes. This seems elementary, but I'm amazed how many people I talk to do NOT keep minutes

• Execute.  Also, we don't just keep minutes. Our minutes are taken with an eye for EXECUTION. Each person;s name is BOLD-ED in the minutes with their responsibilities from the meeting, and they are held accountable for EXECUTING what they agreed to do before the next meeting. Nothing kills the effectiveness of a meeting more than talking about stuff, making decision, but never doing anything about it meeting after meeting!

• Don't handle EVERYTHING at the FULL TEAM Meeting. Many decisions will need to be made off line and in the smaller team meetings throughout the week. Once the full team meeting reaches anywhere NEAR 10 people, many of the decisions for the church or organization need to be made at smaller, team specific meetings, NOT the FULL TEAM meeting. 

• Get the right people at the right meeting. Forget titles when you;re having meetings. Just get the right people there with the right gift mix and the right info to make the right decision. 

• Laugh. Don't be so stern and business like that you can't have fun! Laugh! Cultivate laughter! 

• Spice it Up. Every once in a while, change location, go for ice cream or Starbucks or just go play Office Chair Football (yes we've done that) to break the monotony! The next meeting will be better!

HOPE THIS HELPS!!!

Comments

[ferdie]

thanks for the post.