Have you ever surveyed the people who’ve left your volunteer team? Maybe you oversee your Social Media team or live production or digital marketing or kids or ushers (or something else). Have you ever considered that maybe some people are leaving your team, not because of the task assigned or friction with team members, but maybe they’re leaving because of pointless meetings…
I’m not saying don’t have meetings or don’t get together with your team, but the operative word is POINTLESS meetings – the meetings that make people roll their eyes, wish they’d stayed home and disengage while thinking of an excuse not to come to the next meeting.
How can you tell if a meeting is pointless? Ask these questions:
- Can I communicate what needs to be said in an email?
- Could I record a video on my phone and send it by text message and have the same impact?
- If I quit, would the person who takes over for me hold this meeting or find another way to communicate this information?
- Is there a hands-on reason we need to be in a physical location together? (like new equipment, or new location, etc)
- Have I asked a few team members that I trust if this needs to be a meeting?
Most of the time, especially in the world of technology that we live in, we can find alternative ways to get information to people who need it. Here are a few alternatives for a pointless meeting:
- Create a facebook group for your team: Post information when it needs to be communicated and don’t let anyone in who isn’t part of your team – this is a closed group for team members only and for information as it relates to your team. Build relationships in the group by welcoming new team members, posting about birthdays and mix in some topics or pointers that would usually show in a team meeting. People can see it at their convenience and comment or as a question as needed.
- Post a live video in the group: Team members can hear and see you expressing what needs to be said, watch it back at their convenience and ask questions as you’re live.
- Send an email with information or a link to a private YouTube video: Some team members don’t have or use Facebook? No problem. Send them an email.
- Send text messages: see above… use multiple angles to reach people. Not everyone checks their email regularly and sometimes spam filters really get in the way of important information.
- Phone Call: Yep, I said it. Sometimes the information you want the whole group to hear is actually only applicable to one or two people. Don’t waste everyone else’s time, and if you know someone is going to have a ‘difficult’ reaction to what you need to communicate, give them the courtesy of a private conversation.
- If you really need to have a short meeting when everyone is together anyway. Take 10 minutes before or after a service on a Sunday, rather than 60 minutes on an evening where everyone has to make a separate trip.
- Go ahead and have a meeting, but don’t make it pointless. Use the meeting to share breaking news that nobody else has. Give away prizes, celebrate your team, and give them a reason to want to come back next time. Create such a fun environment that people are disappointed when they have to miss a meeting. Not everyone will be at the meeting, so you’ll need to send an email after to people who had to miss. Don’t make people wish they skipped the meeting and just looked for the email the next day.
Find an alternative to pointless meetings, because your pointless meetings may be a reason your team isn’t growing.
Avoiding pointless meetings is one of the ways I’ve built a volunteer team that grows itself. If you’d like to learn more about that, download my free ebook here: The Pigs Are On The Runway!
What are some of the ways you avoid holding pointless meetings? Leave a comment below so we can all learn!
These are in no particular order, but some of the best FREE resources to take your church communications game up a few notches in 2018. I’ve used these myself and continue to use them as our team grows through 2018.
Just the way he said it was almost rhythmic. Now in an effort to cheer him up, I started making outlandish suggestions that turned into VeggieTales-esque silly song with Larry…
Christmas is an exciting time for churches. It’s one of the easiest opportunities to bring a friend or family member to “Come hear little Johnny sing…” Not only will a friend hear Johnny sing, but they’ll hear music they’re familiar with, be reminded of the Christmas story, and have an evening out.
This has worked really well for us before. Make 4 or 5 email and social media friendly image (ie. smaller than 1000px by 1000px and less than 100K) that they can forward or post on their own social media channels.
If you haven’t heard of the Pumpkin Spice craze, welcome out from under that rock. Pumpkin Spice was originally started by Starbucks in 2003. (
You start by asking how his morning flight was or when his favorite time to catch a worm is, or how long his wife incubates on the eggs before they’re hatched. The penguin has a couple of options. He can ignore you, correct you politely, tell you bluntly what his life is like or go along with you anyway, but despite his choice of response, he’s not in a position to embrace the parachute you’re trying to sell.
Advertising is an important part of what we do and the goal is to inspire a response. Something like “That’s for me” or “I hadn’t thought of it that way” or “I can be part of that”.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my late father-in-law, John Power. His birthday would have been a few days ago. He traveled all over mentoring pastors and speaking at churches and started a Bible College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada where I attended the 2-year program. At the end of my first year in 2004, he moved from Saskatoon to be the Pastor at the church where I grew up in Woodstock, Ontario. So, when I was finished college, I moved back home and married my wife.
