An added touch of humanity to meetings
By Sylvie Edwards | Meetings are a familiar and largely utilized practice to the point of being despised. Let’s talk about the added process of check-in and check-out to make things better.
By Sylvie Edwards for Sankarsingh-Gonsalves Productions
I come from a generation that went to work, did what we were told, and went home. No cellphone, lots of meetings where you get down right to the core of the matter. In recent years, the concept of engaging people better and making them feel “heard” has been at the forefront of many organizations' minds. Nowhere is this more noticeable than with the practice of checking in and checking out while meeting either in person or virtually.
Not familiar with this concept? Let’s first examine what it means.
A Check-In is a simple routine of pausing at the beginning of each meeting to “check-in” with each person and allowing individuals to share anything about how they are doing at that moment.
When we meet as a group for any purpose, we are not void of other human experiences. We walk into the room in a particular physical, mental, and emotional state having just had some other experiences that are with us. Some of those experiences may have prepared us well to be in this room and do the work at hand. Other experiences may leave us distracted, drained, or distraught.
Whatever the case, we do not leave those things at the door. They are with us. This isn’t a matter of just being “professional.” We can try to suppress and ignore these things. We can try to pretend nothing else in the world is happening except what’s in that room, on the present agenda. But because we are human, those things can influence us and our engagement and contribution.
The attempt to function in a group while ignoring ourselves and suppressing our human experience is harmful and counterproductive in many ways. It makes it more difficult to focus and get the rest of the work done. Instead, providing an opportunity to check-in and disclose, “how we are in this present moment” helps us better function in the group, helps us support each other, know each other, and builds bridges of relationship and trust between team members.
What are the benefits of doing this?
Improves transparency
Various factors may alter team members' moods before the start of a check-in meeting. They may be facing personal or professional issues that are affecting their performance. A check-in enables you to understand what challenges they're facing and how you can help solve them. This improves transparency and allows the team to better understand some of the reasons for a person’s behaviour or lack of.
Builds communication
Check-in before meetings provide team members with an opportunity to meet and share ideas on various topics. In a properly facilitated session, each member has an equal opportunity to speak, which shows that the company values building and improving communication. Communication is important for informing colleagues and senior team members about the state of activities and projects. Everyone can contribute and offer their opinions when there's a proper distribution of information. The absence of regular meetings may lead to delays in information passing or sharing.
Facilitates trust and loyalty
The simple act of checking in can increase employees' trust in and loyalty to a company. They reduce the likelihood of information asymmetry, which is when one party possesses more information on a particular activity than another. Connecting regularly with team members also enables you to discuss their roles in the team, which can help them commit to the organization and reduce confusion.
Makes employees happy
Employee morale is important to any organization, either as a personal development criterion for employees or as a contributing factor to the company's growth and development. You can increase employee happiness by checking in with them and inquiring about their personal and professional lives. You can also show your concern over any negative emotions and provide support or advice regarding problems. This may give employees a sense of belonging, which can further increase their loyalty.
Encourages productivity
By making employees happy, you can improve their productivity, which is important to a business's profitability. Regular check-in meetings prepare and motivate employees for future activities. Loyal employees trust other team members and are more likely to work harder than unhappy and disloyal employees.
Reduces employee turnover
By increasing employee happiness, you can also increase employee retention. Employees may align their goals and objectives with the company's long-term plans and focus on how they can help achieve them. They may prefer to attain leadership roles in the organization than to find new jobs at other companies.
Promotes value and understanding
Weekly, biweekly, or monthly check-in meetings are an efficient way to explain current and future tasks and projects to employees. This may help employees better understand and focus on their responsibilities. Once there's clarity regarding tasks, employees can provide more value to the business and contribute more positively to its growth.
Helps keep employees accountable
Employee accountability refers to the formal and informal processes that management uses to assess employees at intervals and keep them responsible for their actions and tasks. You can increase accountability in employees by regularly asking them about their progress, rewarding high performers, and penalizing non-performers. It's important that employees understand the importance of accountability, and check-ins allow for more regular assessments than quarterly or yearly evaluations.
Helps identify committed employees
Check-in allows you to determine which employees commit most to their duties. This knowledge can be beneficial in helping you fill senior leadership positions, as in-house recruitment is often a better choice than external hiring. You may also determine which employees are suitable for a job promotion, raise, or other benefits. Check-in meetings also promote employee retention and help the business save resources when employing new individuals.
A good check-out can also be considered at the end of the meeting to ensure that everyone is still engaged and that some of the anxiety felt earlier is dissipated by the end of the meeting.
I highly recommend that you do this in your next meeting. Start slow, with a simple question, and go from there. Before too long you will see that it will become part of your meeting rituals.
About the author: Sylvie Edwards has been involved in Project Management in several industries for more than 25 years, overseeing projects in the IT, Banking, Health, Government and Securities sectors. She is a post secondary #educator assisting hundreds of potential PMP® achieve their certification, and a blogger on all things related to #projectmanagement. Sylvie is a two term past President and current member on the board of directors for the PMI-DHC (Project Management Institute- Durham Highlands Chapter). She had the honour of being named Fellow of the Project Management Association of Canada (FPMAC).
I love this.
We do these check-ins at all our team meetings both in person and virtual. I find them very useful and it tends to put me in a different state of mind. One where I actually listen to and engage with the people at the meeting. Our check-outs are usually a meditation of some sort i.e. like a breathing or focus exercise - oftentimes we're over time in our meetings and ask participants to do something to help them relax and prepare for the rest of their day. But we never miss the check in.