One Change for More Effective Team Meetings.

I’m an early riser. Today, I woke up at four o’clock. As I fired up the Keurig and lit the gas fireplace, I chuckled remembering a long-time, not-a-morning-person, friend who often said, “There is a 4 AM? I had no idea.” 

With my up-and-at-’em wiring, for years I naturally assumed everyone loved early meetings and as my team grew at my first start-up, I scheduled our weekly team meeting each Monday at 8:00 AM. For early-risers, that may not even seem that early, and for my team who worked remotely even in 2006, they were eager for this once-a-week, in-person connection time, so they showed up. Trouble was, after more weeks/months than I’d like to admit, I found the meetings unproductive. People either weren’t engaged or didn’t seem to have a handle on the week ahead. After a while I realized familiar refrains that sounded like, “I’ll need to get back with you…I haven’t really had a chance to look at my whole week,” or “I meant to get organized on that project over the weekend, but we were busy.” 

For weeks I was super frustrated. Why weren’t people more on top of things? Why so unorganized? Eventually it dawned on me. These amazing people just aren’t all morning people. Especially not Monday morning people. In an inspired moment, I said, “How would you all like to move this meeting to Monday lunch, and I’ll buy lunch?” Those two shifts, a later time and the relational bonus of sharing a meal, revolutionized our weekly meeting. The additional four hours gave people time to ease into their day, review their project lists and details, have important conversations before gathering as a team and more. The important lesson for me was not that my team was made up of night owls. The lesson for me was to achieve a greater level of teamness, I needed to pay closer attention to my team members’ natural wiring. 

Is there a team dynamic you’re struggling with that might be improved upon if you look more closely at your team’s natural wiring? Are begrudgingly pushing a rock uphill hoping everyone would join you, when a shift in the direction of their natural wiring might align everyone on the uphill side of the rock? If so, suddenly you may find gravity and momentum in your favor.