Tips for Better Standup Meetings

Here are some tips to conduct better standup meetings with your team.

1. Focus on building team rapport
2. Empower introvert employees
3. Keep it short and sweet
4. Define a Format
5. Leverage synchronous and asynchronous
6. Use easier communication channels
7. Try to build trust and bonding
8. Encourage new ideas
9. Keep it relevant to everyone
10. Don’t force people to speak
11. Avoid micromanaging

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1. Focus on building team rapport

One of the biggest challenges in conducting remote stand-up meetings is the lack of in-person connection. When people meet each other in an office, there is an environment of enthusiasm and warmth, helping them develop effective interpersonal relations.

You can use your daily huddles to help employees interact with one another since everyone is present at one time.

2. Empower introvert employees

When your team members connect over a virtual meeting, it becomes difficult to notice everyone. And this is where your introverted employees go unnoticed.

When conducting morning update meetings, encourage your introverted employees to speak up. Make sure you gradually break the ice instead of forcing them to participate.

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3. Keep it short and sweet

Your daily huddles should not be an hour long. The longer the meeting, the less your employees will be interested in participating. Make sure you keep them quick so that everyone can participate effectively instead of getting bored.

Short meetings are also motivating as they promote quick knowledge transfer and boost employees’ morale to start their work day effectively.

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4. Define a Format

Have a clear format of your meeting and make sure to tell it to your employees. For example, you can keep one part of the huddle for receiving updates at work, while the other for ideas and one for any quick problems encountered by employees.

This will help your team align their thoughts and present what is important. Ultimately, it will help you make the most of everyone’s time.

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5. Leverage synchronous and asynchronous

While most teams have one defined format of meetings where they either choose to receive updates in a written format or asynchronously or synchronously via a Zoom meeting, you can try both. This can serve you in multiple ways.

While you can receive written updates, you can use the meeting for more personal conversations and remove any roadblocks your employees face.

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6. Use easier communication channels

Use a communication channel that most people in your team use. You can also ask your teammates about their opinion and then decide on a platform. For example, you can use slack for holding your standup meetings as it is a great platform to keep up with the updates and break the ice between your teammates.

Similarly, if most of your employees are more comfortable with Microsoft Teams, use it. Again, the idea is to promote easier access to daily huddles, keeping employees engaged.

7. Try to build trust and bonding

While receiving updates and monitoring progress is part of work, make sure you utilize huddles as an opportunity to build trust between your employees. Remember that it’s already difficult for them to coordinate and bond in a remote work environment.

With stand-up meetings, you can ease this process and encourage open conversations with context that help team members understand each other’s work, ask questions and offer suggestions.

8. Encourage new ideas

New ideas must be a part of standup meetings. This helps your employees think and come up with solutions that might seem unconventional. When you’re starting to ask your team members for ideas, make sure you set an example by giving a few yourself.

This will give them the direction to think. Make sure you acknowledge ideas and don’t force people to speak up.

9. Keep it relevant to everyone

Your standup meetings must be relevant to all members of your team. If you think you are working with more than one department, hold separate standups for them to understand the work and contribute to the ongoing conversations.

Ask your teammates to present information with context so that people get a brief idea of the background. Again, it helps employees stay in the loop and engaged.

10. Don’t force people to speak

While you must empower everyone to speak up, make sure you don’t force people to speak up if they’re not comfortable. However, if you find members in your team who might not be comfortable speaking in groups, have a one-on-one meeting with them.

Try to understand their concerns and work on elements that make them feel confident to speak during virtual meetings.

11. Avoid micromanaging

Managers often tend to micromanage their teams in one or the other ways. However, it is imperative to understand that micromanaging can send a message to your employees that you don’t trust them enough. So when you’re holding remote standup meetings, make sure you don’t interrogate an employee.

If you need more details regarding their work, ask them to submit a report later personally. Keep the standups for empowering discussions and bringing out the best in your team members, instead of micromanaging them.

How to Run Effective Remote Meetings Using Troopr‍

Remote daily standup meetings for employees

You can easily replace your traditional standup meetings with Troopr Check-ins. Troopr periodically collects responses from your team asynchronously and generates actionable summary reports for Slack and web.

Troopr also aggregates activities from your tools like Jira & GitHub to give you a complete picture.

Slack is where your team work happens everyday. Troopr standup slack bot work will help you to track the progress updates.

Getting Started with Troopr?

Just 3 easy steps:

Step 1: Select "Standup" template in Troopr Check-ins and customize the schedule, participants, questions and reporting.

Step 2: Troopr prompts your team to provide a brief update of what they are up to in Slack.

Step 3: Troopr compiles an aggregated report and shares it in your Slack channel and in the web portal.  

Want more information? Learn more about Troopr slack bot here

Conclusion

If you’ve already been conducting stand-up meetings, it is time to rethink them in terms of employee engagement. Remember that while your agenda might be to take updates from your team, it is also crucial to focus on making these standups friendly and empowering for your employees.

So, instead of taking them as a ritual for updates, make them a means for boosting your team's productivity.

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