Scheduled meetings: how often do you have project team meetings?

With the advent of remote modes of communication, it has become much easier to conduct business meetings. But ease doesn't mean you have to meet every day or once a month. The frequency of meetings depends on the specifics of your team and the nature of the tasks you want to solve.

What is a scheduled video meeting?

Scheduled meetings help keep the team communicating, assign and complete current tasks, and monitor their progress. This is a recurring business meeting that takes place online or onsite.

How are scheduled meetings used in remote teamwork?

When teamwork becomes remote, people need to pay attention to maintaining connections between them and staying connected. “But is it necessary to meet more often in a remote format?” - you ask. This is where the definition of meeting a cadence is required.

Initially, cadence is a sports term, meaning the frequency of steps or revolutions per minute. When applied to business meetings, this means the frequency of meetings that provides the best result for collaboration.

Types of team meetings.

There are two types of team meetings:

• maintenance (planned) - to control the implementation of tasks;
• to change course - suggest new elements when meeting with your team.

For both species, an appropriate moment is needed.

Problems if periods between appointments are too short or too long

Videoconferencing team meetings are effective when you successfully find momentum. Otherwise, you can end up with a frustrated and disordered team. If the breaks between conferences are too long, you lose control and your team loses rapport and teamwork skills. If you keep them too close and meet too often, they won't have anything new to say and they won't feel productive enough.

How to find the right cadence for your team?

The company must consider what the team is working on when looking for the right cadence for tactical meetings.

What should be considered when scheduling regular meetings?

With all the time and resource saving benefits of video conferencing, you should still consider:

• urgency and importance - if there is something to discuss;
• stability - if everything goes smoothly;
• work function - how you divided labor;
• interdependence – that team members need to interact the most.

These points can help you determine your ideal frequency and change it if something goes wrong.

Alternatives for scheduling a video call

If you think your frequency isn't ideal, but more frequent use of video conferencing software isn't effective, you can use other means to keep in touch with your team. It usually works well with the platform as a workspace for file sharing, task commenting, and instant messaging. Think about your ideas and discuss them together.

Rhythm examples for different hangouts and teams

To substantiate some specific ideas, take a look at the table below.

To find the perfect balance, try different options for your case.

Regular meetings are an integral part of any workflow. But the key issue is to find the middle ground. Use the iMind app for scheduling and planning to make your team work as productive as possible.