How to Successfully Run a Team Update Meeting [+ Examples]

Good meetings will never have people saying they’re a waste of time. A great way to avoid that dreaded statement is to have them regularly but not overly often. A weekly team update meeting is a great example. It’s a short, productive meeting that solves issues quickly, holds your team accountable, and happens just once a week. Read on to discover five tips on how to run an effective team update meeting. 

• What is a team update meeting? 
• 5 tips on how to run a team update meeting 
• Examples of what to discuss during a team update meeting 

What is a team update meeting? 

A team update meeting is a weekly in-person or virtual meeting for your team to chat about where projects stand and where they’re headed. It’s also a time to bring up any potential issues for the team to address. If any of these issues would be better to discuss another time, you can schedule a problem-solving meeting. This way, your team update meeting stays more in line with a standard status meeting.

An effective team update meeting can help answer any unresolved questions and provide helpful guidance for any team members who are struggling. It also can hold your team accountable to ensure they’re focusing on their goals and making progress throughout the week. 

5 tips on how to run a team update meeting 

Below are some tips on how you can run an effective team meeting. 

• Create an agenda
• Choose a facilitator who leads the meeting
• Review last week’s KPIs
• Leave room for questions
• Keep it short

1Create an agenda 

A meeting agenda is an ordered list of all the topics, action items, and talking points you’ll discuss during the meeting. It should also include who’s in charge of each talking point and how long each point will take to discuss. Having an agenda will help your meeting stay on track and give it a clear purpose. It’s basically a table of contents for a conversation.

Once you fill out your meeting agenda template, make sure you send it to everyone before the meeting. This way, your team can look over the agenda and write down any questions they may want to address during the meeting. 

2Choose a facilitator who leads the meeting

Your meeting facilitator will follow the meeting agenda closely to keep everyone on track and set the tone for the meeting. They’re also in charge of ensuring that everyone feels included during the meeting and gets the chance to share their thoughts and ask questions. Typically, the facilitator will be a manager, but it can really be any team member. If someone wants to do it, there’s no harm in letting them try. 

3Review last week’s KPIs

Your key performance indicators (KPIs) create milestones for your team members to measure their progress toward a goal. That means it also gives your team goals in the first place. For example, one KPI you might want to discuss in meetings is whether you met your targeted number of new customers for the month. Another example would be net sales growth and how your team can come up with an action plan to get closer to your target. 

4Leave room for questions

Your meeting agenda should include a specific time for questions, typically at the end of the meeting. Give your team roughly five to 10 minutes to ask any questions or share any concerns. These questions and concerns could be related to any important announcements you’ve made or about any potential issues getting in the way. 

5Keep it short

Your weekly meeting should be short and sweet, ideally lasting at most 30 minutes. To keep your meeting running smoothly without going overboard, you should assign a team member to be the timekeeper. This person will follow the meeting agenda closely to ensure the meeting doesn’t run overtime. This team member and the meeting facilitator will also work together to bring the discussion back into focus if it starts veering off-topic. 

Examples of what to discuss during a team update meeting 

• Progress on tasks
• Any potential issues that need clarification
• Peer feedback
• Weekly priorities
• Important announcements and updates 

If you’re hosting your first team update meeting, you might be second-guessing what to include in your meeting agenda. Below is a list of examples of what you may want to cover during your team update meeting. 

1Progress on tasks

During the meeting, go around the room and ask each team member for updates. This will give you a good idea of where each person is at for the week and whether you need to make adjustments. Maybe you’ll find out someone is a day behind on something important since they’ve been stuck on this other task. That’s a cue to ask: Who can take over? When everyone shares updates, you can problem-solve in real-time and more effectively delegate all your work. 

2Any potential issues that need clarification

Weekly update meetings are a great time to bring up any concerns and ask your team to do so too. Chances are if one team member brings up an issue, others may have thought about it. When you give updates, you’ll be able to address these issues before they balloon into much bigger problems. 

3Peer feedback

When team members share their weekly updates, they discuss their progress, plans, and issues. That makes updates the perfect opportunity to show your team that you’re paying attention and that you care. Namely, it’s a great time to share peer feedback. For example, if a team member has exceeded their monthly goal in sales, let them know and offer praise. You can do it in front of the whole team to make that team member feel especially seen – and motivate the rest of your team.

4Weekly priorities

What are you hoping to accomplish this week? Do you have any new projects or plans for your team? A weekly update meeting is the perfect opportunity to discuss your priorities so that your entire team is on the same page. It’s a great time to get all your ducks (okay, team members) in a row.

5Important announcements and updates 

Instead of emailing each team member about updates or important announcements, you want to reiterate them during the weekly meeting. Then, after the meeting, you can send out a meeting follow-up email that goes over everything that happened in case someone missed it. 

Prepare for your team update meeting with Fellow 

Regular team update meetings are a great way to improve communication and employee productivity at your organization. They’re also easier with a tool that allows you to collaboratively build meeting agendas, take meeting notes, and follow through on meeting action items. With Fellow, you can do all that and so much more right from one platform. It can bring great changes to your team update meetings – it’s just the update your meetings need.