This video discusses team meetings and how to chair them.
Team meetings
Effective team meetings improve the way staff work together and thus the quality of life of each person supported.
Each organisation has policies about the frequency of team meetings and who is expected to attend. At a minimum, team meetings should be held monthly, last about 2 hours, and be attended by all support workers who regularly work in the service.
You should use team meetings to:
Each organisation has policies about the frequency of team meetings and who is expected to attend. At a minimum, team meetings should be held monthly, last about 2 hours, and be attended by all support workers who regularly work in the service.
You should use team meetings to:
- Review and discuss the quality of life of each person you support by asking how is their quality of life, how could it be improved, and what support is required?
- Develop team members’ skills in Active Support by sharing ideas and examples of good practice.
- Establish consistency across staff practice by sharing information about the best way to provide support and agreeing how support will be delivered.
- Share information and problem solve by discussing what staff have tried, what has and hasn’t worked, and learning from each other.
- Reinforce shared values among staff that put the quality of life of the people they support at the centre of everything they do.
- Clarify key objectives and expectations in the service
- Shape team culture
- Enhance peer relationships
Preparing for team meetings
Before the meeting you must prepare the agenda. Do not simply follow a meeting template. Ensure the agenda reflects the priorities for improving the quality of life of the people you support in this service.
In preparing an agenda you need to:
In preparing an agenda you need to:
- Be clear what you want to achieve in the meeting. For example, generate new ideas about enhancing a person’s quality of life and share examples of good practice.
- Work out how you will achieve your aim for the meeting. For example, how will you encourage staff to share examples of their practice?
- Allocate time for each item to make sure you have sufficient time to discuss everything on the agenda.
- Review minutes from the previous meeting and note topics that should have been followed up.
- Review notes from observations and supervisions and look for patterns across team members.
- Circulate the agenda to team members before the meeting so they can also prepare and invite them to add additional items.
Chairing the meeting
Effective team meetings rely on a skilled chairperson. You must create an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable in contributing to the discussion and that their opinions are valued. You must also control the flow of the meeting by keeping the group on task and to time.
Strategies for chairing effective meetings include:
Strategies for chairing effective meetings include:
- Encouraging discussion by asking open-ended questions
- Ensuring everyone has a say by asking each staff member to have input
- Respecting everyone’s opinion by listening to what they have to say
- Ensuring everyone is following the discussion by summarising key points as the conversation progresses
- Identifying when the discussion moves substantially off topic and bring it back on track
This video shows how a Frontline Practice Leader effectively chairs a team meeting.
-
Questions
-
Download Activity
<
>
- How did the Practice Leader direct the discussion on a person’s quality of life?
- How did the Practice Leader generate input from staff and discussion?
- What do you think of how team members interacted with each other?
The main focus of team meetings must be on staff practice and the quality of life of the people you support. How you organise each meeting depends on your organisation and your team.
Here are some ideas:
In this video, three Frontline Practice Leaders talk about how they prepare and chair team meetings.
Here are some ideas:
- Pick one domain of quality of life and discuss how well each person you support is doing on this domain.
- Brainstorm ideas for improving each person’s quality of life and what support would be needed.
- Focus on one of the people you support and review their quality of life across all 8 domains.
- Review one of the 4 Essentials of Active Support and how it is used with each person you support.
- Give feedback on the team’s performance based on your observations, coaching and supervision.
- Review together videos of staff providing support to identify good practice and areas to improve.
- Ask staff to share one success story each in relation to a person you support.
- Organise staff to work in small groups on a problem, then come together to share ideas.
In this video, three Frontline Practice Leaders talk about how they prepare and chair team meetings.
After the meeting
Minutes are the record of the meeting and agreed actions. They must be written from notes taken during the meeting and circulated as soon as possible after the meeting.
Minutes should provide a summary of key points discussed, decisions and action outcomes of the meeting. They will remind staff who has taken responsibility for which actions. They are a way of holding people accountable, ensuring actions are not forgotten, and facilitating reporting back at the next meeting.
Minutes should provide a summary of key points discussed, decisions and action outcomes of the meeting. They will remind staff who has taken responsibility for which actions. They are a way of holding people accountable, ensuring actions are not forgotten, and facilitating reporting back at the next meeting.
Reviewing the team
All teams are different and dynamic. They change over time as new members join and others leave. Your approach to chairing meetings may also need to change. Ways of understanding your team include:
- Listening: to the language used by the team. How does the team speak about the people they support? Is it strengths-based and positive? How do team members talk to each other? How do they talk about other people?
- Thinking: What do team members think are the priorities and objectives of the service? What process does the team use to solve problems? What assumptions and perspectives influence their decision making? How do they understand engagement in meaningful activities and relationships? How do they understand and use the 4 Essentials of Active Support to solve difficulties in providing support?
- Observing: What does the team’s behaviour communicate? Are there noticeable patterns in their behaviour? Are there some things they are willing to do, but other things they are not?
Culture
Team meetings are an opportunity to establish staff culture. A positive culture is motivating for staff and enabling for the people you support. This table provides an overview of the differences in culture between better and underperforming services.
Characteristics of staff culture
Better performing service |
Under performing service |
Strong leadership – the Frontline Practice Leader sets expectations, leads practice and provides staff with feedback. |
Individual or groups of staff try to exert leadership of other staff, undermining the Frontline Practice Leader. |
Team members share the same values about their work, including prioritising the quality of life of the people they support. |
Team members have different values, which do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation. |
Team members share responsibility for the quality of life of the people they support. |
Lack of shared responsibility among team members – each member has their own set of priorities. |
Staff feel that they are part of the organisation they work. |
Staff feel distanced from the organisation they work for. |
Staff are open to new ideas and want to make positive changes. |
Staff are resistant to change and want to preserve the status quo. |
There are good working relationships between staff and family members and other people connected to the service. |
Staff are resistant to family members or other outsiders coming into the service. |
-
Questions
-
Download Activity
<
>
Reflect on the team you lead and respond to these questions:
- What are the key characteristics of the staff team?
- How do the characteristics compare with those in the table above?
- In what ways is the team culture positive? In what ways could it be improved?
Summary
Team meetings are an opportunity for staff to discuss the quality of life of each person they support and identify ways it could be improved. They are an important opportunity for staff to collectively discuss Active Support. For team meetings to be effective, they must be well planned, skilfully chaired and provide a place for staff to think together and share ideas.
This concludes the activities for the Frontline Practice Leadership online training resource. In the Resources section, you will find extra training material.
In this final video, Frontline Practice Leaders share their advice on how to do Practice Leadership.