No one likes meetings, and as a remote team, you might think that you’re off the hook, but these five meetings are important to keep.
Daily team stand-up check-in meeting
Checking in with your team is important, even more so for remote teams who might not see or bump into each other. If you can, set aside 15 minutes every day to get together on video-conference to update each other on what you’re working on, what you plan to work on and what you are struggling with/need support on. If you can’t, at least have a running document or a slack channel. We recommend the Standuply Slack bot. They help virtual teams have scrum check-ins daily.
One-on-one with your supervisor
This can be as simple as a 2 minute “hey, I just did a new thing, come check it out and give me your feedback” meeting to a 3 hour “I need advice on my life and career” meeting. The cadence of these meetings depends on your work and your relationship with your supervisor, but they should happen, with some regularity.
One-on-one with staff reporting to you
The same as the above, you want to regularly check in with the staff members reporting to you, helping them with problems, giving them feedback and supporting them in their career.
Quarterly strategy meeting
Here at Gr8er Good Games, we believe in the Quarterly strategy meeting, where we plan out our next 90 days, with timelines, goals, deliverables, and accountability. Annual planning feels too far away, especially with our crazy new programs and ideas that we want to implement; and monthly planning feels way too short. Plus our target customers and market live on a quarterly basis, so it just makes sense. These meetings are a great way to get your team on the same page, share any resources and hurdles, and inspire your staff to work their best.
Annual in-person planning and retreat
Yes, we’re the remote team-building company, but we still encourage all remote teams to have an annual (or bi-annual) in-person planning and retreat. There’s nothing that beats sharing space with someone, even if it’s just typing away on laptops separately or making dinner together. These annual retreats should be part planning and part play.
The best retreats that we’ve seen have team members all meeting at a beautiful location, working together for a couple of days and playing together for a couple more. You might all meet up at an industry-specific conference, co-work together, or lead an annual strategic planning session. But after hours, there should be time to cook, to watch movies, to hike, to play games, to explore and play together. You might want to do a team scavenger hunt, go wine tasting, try scuba diving. Whatever it is, definitely set aside both structured and unstructured time for play, for bonding, and for your team to connect.
What do you think? Let us know at hello at patchworkadventures.com.