Remote team meetings should be spontaneous and social
Remote team meetings should be spontaneous and social
Many remote teams, including ours, are shifting away from back-to-back meetings and towards a "total async" workflow. We complete projects without meetings, make decisions without meetings, and share life updates without meetings.
The thing is, team meetings are often created as "set it and forget it" events. They pop up on the calendar, you sign in to Zoom, and then an hour is gone.
If you're using meetings for the following recurring objectives, you might want to rethink your approach:
All of these "accountability" meetings are actually best when translated into writing - so that your team has a record of activity, progress, wins, and losses. It's also easier to digest this kind of info in writing, rather than trying to listen to everyone as they go around in a circle.
But meetings are good for a few things.
As much as we advocate for asynchronous workflows, "total async" actually isn't good for anyone. Entropy takes over, teams devolve into silos, people feel disconnected from each other. But intentional meetings, as opposed to automated ones, will energize your team and give them something to look forward to, rather than check off the to-do list. Don't forget to keep everyone on track with meeting minutes.
Here are a few tips to make meetings more intentional:
There are additional, unseen benefits to changing up your meeting plans. First of all, you'll have a written record of all important decisions, alongside discussions and progress reports. It's a transparent way to build knowledge in a team. And most importantly, when you create space for spontaneous meetings, your conversations will feel less effortful and tied to a sense of obligation. Friendly calls that can last as short or as long as you want - isn't that the flexibility we all dream about?
Melanie Broder is on the Marketing team at Slite, where she works on all things content. She helps Slite users gain new skills through guides, templates, and videos. She lives in New York City, where she likes to read novels and run loops around Central Park.
Clara Rua is on the Design team at Slite. She juggles with all the Slite's brand codes to make our values and beliefs come to life in illustrations, projects, and visuals, amonst other things. You can find her cycling, surfing, pottery making, jump-roping, yoga-ing from the south of France to the Moroccan west coast.