When done well, weekly team meetings can be an effective use of time for everyone. They give team members the opportunity to sync on priorities, and leadership the ability to get everyone on the same page.
However, team meetings that are run without structure can become a drain on employee resources and an unproductive use of time. The best and easiest way to avoid this is by using a weekly meeting agenda to ensure every meeting stays on track.
In this post, we will cover:
- Different types of weekly meeting agenda templates
- Benefits of using agenda templates for weekly team meetings
- Tips for hosting more effective weekly team meetings
- Conclusion
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Different types of weekly meeting agenda templates
One of the nuances of weekly team meetings is that they are often unique to the teams that are running them. Engineering teams, for example, won't run their team meetings in the same way that an operational weekly meeting or executive leadership weekly meeting would be run.
Below are some examples of different types of weekly team meetings and their respective structures. These templates are best used in Fellow, the all in one AI meeting management platform that solves your meeting problem. When you use them in Fellow, they can be easily applied to any calendar event with just a few clicks, fostering collaboration and structure for your entire organization:
Weekly Team Meeting
This weekly team meeting agenda template is meant to encompass multiple teams in the same meeting.
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Weekly Manager Meeting
This template is designed for leaders who manage managers, and gives each participant the opportunity to share updates, wins, goals, challenges, and more.
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Weekly Sprint Meeting
Sprint meetings are often used by engineering teams, but this template casts a wide enough net where any team engaging in a sprint can use it.
{{weekly-sprint-meeting="/blog-inserts-7"}}
Remote Weekly Meeting
In a remote workforce, connecting weekly can have its own unique set of challenges, and therefore deserves its own unique structure.
{{remote-weekly-meeting="/blog-inserts-6"}}
Project Check-in Meeting
For certain projects, it can be necessary to meet weekly to ensure all the moving parts are going smoothly, and that the project objective is always top of mind.
{{project-check-in-meeting="/blog-inserts-5"}}
Executive Weekly Team Meeting
The executive team in an organization has a different set of priorities when compared to other teams, so this template is structured with an executive team's unique needs in mind.
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Weekly Meeting
In comparison to the weekly team meeting template, the more general weekly meeting template is structured to accommodate teams of more unique sizes, and goes more in-depth into highlights, roadblocks, new information, and other important notes.
{{weekly-meeting="/blog-inserts-7"}}
Weekly Marketing Meeting
Marketing team meetings often encompass different kinds of goals and updates, so the structure for this template has been designed accordingly.
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If you're looking for more templates for the different kinds of meetings in your organization, Fellow's got you covered. Fellow is the all-in-one AI meeting management solution that has over 500 fully customizable meeting templates for you and your team's needs.
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Benefits of using a weekly team meeting agenda template
Besides helping structure the different weekly team meetings in your organization, using a weekly team meeting agenda template can help streamline workflows for you and your team in more ways than one:
Time saving
Using a ready-built template that comes pre-populated with topics and talking points means you don't have to take time out of your day to craft a meeting agenda manually, and the same goes for other leaders and teams in your organization.
Consistency
Picking out the right template for your team's needs and using it consistently for weekly team meetings means everyone who attends that meeting is always in the know about how the meeting will be structured and what is expected of them week-to-week.
Documentation
Templates provide a single place for teams to come together and share their thoughts, updates, and ideas. Having a single place ensures that the meeting notes from your weekly team meeting are clearly documented for future reference.
Accountability
Most good weekly meeting agenda templates will have a section for action items where the tasks that come out of the meeting can be documented, assigned, and easily tracked. Having this as part of your weekly team meeting structure fosters accountability for your entire team and reduces the need for follow-up.
Communication
Because your team knows what to expect from every weekly team meeting, they can communicate with each other better. Knowing what's on the agenda means everyone can come to the meeting prepared to converse and engage with each other.
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Tips for hosting more effective weekly team meetings
Due to their recurring nature, weekly team meetings can either elevate your team or slow them down. With this in mind, here are some tips for hosting more effective weekly team meetings:
Leverage AI
Because ineffective meetings can be a drain on resources, leveraging AI to automate parts of your meeting workflow will help ensure your weekly team meetings are always a good use of everyone's time.
Fellow is the all-in-one AI meeting management software designed to help you have fewer, shorter, more effective weekly team meetings. Its AI Meeting Copilot automatically records, transcribes, summarizes, and shares your weekly team meeting notes with attendees.
This means teams can show up prepared and focus on the conversation, rather than scrambling to take meeting notes and follow up afterwards.
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Automate the meeting prep
Getting ready for a meeting can be demanding in terms of energy and bandwidth. Using a software that can automate meeting prep for your team will help ensure they're as effective as possible. Fellow, for example, has pre-meeting reminders and automations to ensure your team adds to the weekly team meeting agenda in advance, so you don't have to worry about reminding attendees yourself.
Foster collaboration
Leadership shouldn't be the only ones coming to the team meeting with talking points. Encourage each attendee to add to the weekly team meeting agenda in order to contribute to the conversation effectively. If an attendee doesn't have any talking points, consider encouraging them to attend asynchronously to give them time time back in their calendar.
Keep meetings lean and efficient
Weekly team meetings are most effective when they have the right amount of attendees and last an appropriate amount of time. Ensure your meetings aren't overcrowded with attendees who don't need to be there, and be sure to keep an eye on how long they last.
Respect the time of your team
Meeting burnout is a very real issue, and overbooking the calendars of your team can prevent them from completing their work efficiently and effectively. Make sure your weekly team meetings are realistic and respectful of everyone's schedules and workload.
Fellow's built-in meeting guidelines help ensure every meeting organizer makes smart meeting decisions with costs in mind. This means keeping the attendee number to under 7, respecting people's schedules by booking meetings with enough time to prepare, and leaving time for deep work and execution through company-wide no meeting days.
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Conclusion
Weekly team meetings have the potential to elevate your team's workflow when they're structured to be as efficient and effective as possible. A weekly team meeting agenda template can be customized to your team's needs and help them be as efficient as possible. Benefits of using a weekly team meeting agenda template include improved time saving, consistency, documentation, accountability, and communication. With the different types of weekly team meetings, it's important to choose the right template for your team. When it comes to setting up your meetings for success, choosing an AI meeting management software like Fellow can help automate the process with AI powered recordings, summaries, and transcripts.
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