5 Presentations Rockstar Technical Leaders Include In Their Staff Meetings

This week, I’m tackling the super sexy topic of monthly staff meetings! 

In this newsletter you’ll learn:

1. Why staff meetings are important but suboptimized
2. How to rethink staff meetings to get more out of them
3. 5 important presentations you should be including, how to get them organized, and the benefits to you and your team.

Why Staff Meetings are Important But Typically Sub-optimized

Monthly staff meetings serve an important function. As the leader, they provide a steady cadence for you to communicate information to your team and to update your understanding of status and challenges. For the team, they provide a chance to learn more about organizational changes and what their peers are doing.  

I am a strong proponent of monthly staff meetings. 

Unfortunately, they tend to be something most people dread because they are usually boring and often don’t contain enough new insights for staff to feel like they did anything other than present to you. 

We’ve all been there: the leader opens the meeting with some information, the direct reports give a rote update, the notes and follow-up action items are recorded, and the meeting is closed.  

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Yet, with just a slight tweak, they could be so much more.

Rethinking Staff Meetings

In 30 minutes, your staff meeting could help you and your team to:

1. Improve interdepartmental cohesion
2. Gain insights into your talent pipeline
3. Improve relationships with key internal and external stakeholders 
4. Drive better decision-making

Do you agree that these are important objectives to accomplish?

💡You can achieve these goals by rethinking who is invited to present during your staff meetings. 

In a typical staff meeting, presentations are made by your direct reports who primarily have a perspective from inside your function and inside your firm. 

I invite you to consider broader perspectives.

How to Level Up Your Staff Meetings in 30 Minutes

Here are 5 important 30-minute presentations to consider for your next staff meeting:

1. Leader

Who: You

What: A summary of your personal priorities, highlights of where you’ve been spending your time over the last month (or quarter), and your analysis on a key decision or strategy that the organization has taken. In your analysis,  include the context, decision-makers, decision-making rationale, and outcome.

How: Just do it.

Why: 

• This presentation satisfies the curiosity of those interested in serving at higher levels (what do they do anyway, is that something I’d like to do someday?).  
• It also improves your team’s decision-making skills by increasing their understanding of Organizational Perspective (OP)*.

 *Organizational Perspective is a catchall phrase I use to describe the inner workings of an organization as defined by the 3 Lenses Framework I learned at M.I.T. Sloan.  The three lenses are: (1) procedures and processes (strategic lens), (2) power and authority structures (political lens), and (3) beliefs and attitudes (cultural lens). Often opaque or indecipherable, these fundamental attributes influence how decisions are made about the fate of ideas, strategies, and people.

→ Watch Professor Emeritus John Van Maanen describe the Three Lenses in this YouTube video from MIT’s Executive Education 

Image Credit: MIT Sloan

2. Junior

Who: A person on your team who is more junior than your direct reports (from a hierarchy standpoint) who doesn’t report directly to you and who doesn’t typically participate in your staff meetings.

What: A briefing on a new initiative or a highlight of an accomplishment.

How: Ask your direct reports to nominate a high-potential junior staff member to give your team a briefing. Make sure that your direct report is ready to provide adequate coaching so the junior staff is confident and well-prepared.

Why: 

• Gives you visibility into the talent pipeline. 
• Gives you an assessment of your direct reports’ ability to coach talent.
• Gives the invitee a huge acknowledgment for their efforts. 

3. Your Peers in Other Departments

Who: Someone inside your company who is in a different department.

What: A briefing on their organization, strategic priorities, and preferences on when and how your team can interact with them.

How: Here are three easy steps:

1. Identify candidates.
2. Brainstorm with your team.  Use your firm’s org chart to get ideas. I strongly encourage you to think beyond other technical functions. Consider administrative/operational functions such as HR, procurement, sales, marketing, safety, legal, tech transfer, student success, CAPEX, reliability and maintenance, and finance, IT) 
3. Invite them to your meeting. Your invitation could look something like this:

I’d like my staff to get a better understanding of how your department functions. Would you be willing to give a 30-minute presentation to my team? Topics that I know they would be interested in include: your org chart, the strategic initiatives you are working on, when is the best time to engage your team, what is the most effective way to engage your team, and anything else you think we should know.

*Be ready to reciprocate.

Why: 

• Improves your team’s decision-making skills by increasing their understanding of Organizational Perspective.  
• Signals camaraderie and cohesion at higher levels of the organization.

There are inevitable friction points between different departments in an organization. Demonstrating that you value working alongside your peers despite these frictions (by inviting them to your staff meeting), sends a powerful signal to your direct reports that they too need to work through their conflicts. 

4. External Stakeholders

Who: Someone outside your organization who has important implications for the function of your organization.

What: A briefing on their organization, strategic priorities, and preferences on when and how your team can interact with them.

How: Here are three easy steps:

1. Identify candidates. 
2. Brainstorm with your team. Review your calendar and identify stakeholders you’ve met one-on-one. Areas to consider include suppliers, customers, regulators, and community partners.
3. Invite them to your meeting. Your invitation could look something like this: 

I’d like my staff to get a better understanding of how your organization functions. Would you be willing to give a 30-minute presentation to my team? Topics that I know they would be interested in include: your org chart, the strategic initiatives you are working on, when is the best time to engage your team, what is the most effective way to engage your team, and anything else you think we should know.

*Be ready to reciprocate.

Why: 

• Broadens your team’s professional network.
• Improves your team’s decision-making skills by increasing their understanding of Organizational Perspective*.  

5. 3rd Party Expert 

Who: Someone outside of your organization who has expertise in an area of interest.

What: Content in an area of interest. I suggest you focus on emerging trends and professional development.

How: 4 Easy Steps

1. Identify the topic. Brainstorm with your team to learn about their interests in the areas of emerging trends and professional development.
2. Get the content. Find an article, book, podcast, YouTube video, or speaker to provide the content. (Note: you can absolutely delegate this task!)
3. Deliver the material and set expectations. Give your staff the content either in advance to be consumed on their own or during the meeting. Ask them to prepare notes on how the content impacts them personally or their team. 
4. Facilitate discussion and reflection. 

If you are looking for ideas, an example is this free article from Boston Consulting Group on the types of innovation models. I routinely used this as a launching point for a staff meeting discussion. Which of these models most directly reflects how your team operates?

Why:

• Allows the team to relate to each other in a different way.
• Allows the team to reflect on an important topic.
• Facilitates the sharing of perspectives and best practices.

TL;DR

Monthly staff meetings serve an important function.

As the leader, they provide a steady cadence for you to communicate information to update your understanding of status and challenges.

By strategically incorporating one of the five presentations reviewed in this post, you can leverage the time you already have together to do so much more.

In as little as 30 minutes, you can improve interdepartmental cohesion, gain insights into your talent pipeline, improve relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, and drive better decision-making across your team.