Team meetings. Don’t like living with them, but you surely can’t live without them. It’s true that team meetings have been getting a lot of bad rep lately. They often waste time, are unproductive and represent a general nuisance for most people involved. In our previous posts, we have even cited how unproductive meetings cost companies billions of dollars each year. But this by no means should be an indictment on meetings – just the way they’re often run. Well-run meetings are crucial to the well-being of your company. Why, you might ask? Because meetings are truly conducive to various tasks or dynamics essential to a healthy business. Let us explain.

Real communication goes beyond exchanging messages

Despite the onslaught of technology that desperately tries to isolate us behind interconnected devices, we’re still social creatures designed for personal contact. We may not realize it, but about half of our communication happens non-verbally. Things like facial expressions, gestures, and our posture speak volumes, often contradicting what our mouths produce. How many times could you tell that someone was lying just from the way they said it or how they looked doing it? It should be clear then, that if we don’t meet in person, we’re only getting half the story, often missing the most important part.
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Think about assigning some hugely important tasks to a member of your team. Wouldn’t it be smart to have the possibility to gauge their reaction to the assignment in person? That’s why meetings are necessary whenever you need to see someone’s honest feelings about an issue or, for example, to assess people’s involvement. These are things that email or Slack messages just can’t convey, and that’s the primary reason why you still need team-meetings. Primary, because the other reasons for having meetings really stem from their ability to facilitate this open communication.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but you need to know your team

People work best when they’re engaged and part of a team, striving for some common goal. But it’s quite difficult to develop such engagement without regular team meetings. Face-to-face communication – not to be confused with FaceTime communication – is instrumental in building rapport and ultimately trust, which go a long way in well-run project teams. This is when people are able to get to know one another on a more personal level beyond the project scope and develop bonds that will make them that much more effective as a unit.

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Creativity and problem-solving need team synergy

Yes, email and other communicators facilitate the exchange of ideas but they can’t beat a room full of people with a jug of coffee and a whiteboard, throwing ideas around until something sticks. It is usually in such situations that we can get this synergistic effect that we seek from our team in creative projects. It’s pretty hard, if not impossible to get that kind of dynamic over chat, and when you’re trying to problem-solve this dynamic seems vital to success. That’s why if you ever expect to add 2 and 2 together and get 5, buy a super-sized jug, a value pack of the finest Colombian black brew and a whiteboard, put them all in one room, then add your team and just wait for magic to happen.

The secret ingredient – the technology that binds

But there is one deciding ingredient that determines whether your meeting will truly embody its collaborative potential or will become a dreaded period of unfocused chatter – the right tech solution. Something that will connect everyone’s device and allow to seamlessly share visuals on the screen, let everyone contribute with comments and annotations, and do it all in a super secure way without all the pesky wires.

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That’s exactly what the family of NovoConnect solutions brings, plus a bit more. Regardless of the size of your team and venue, you can mix and match the various NovoConnect devices to get a customized wireless solution that takes your team collaboration to new heights. Starting with hassle-free BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) wireless connectivity so that everyone can pitch in and share content from laptop, tablet or mobile device. Invite guest participation wirelessly using the LauncherPlus to connect any laptop without software installation, while employees can use the DesktopStreamer and Novo apps to connect time and time again. Enjoy moderator tools such as on-screen annotation and file sharing to all participants. Keep your ideas secure – using a wireless but foremost a secure enhanced AES-256 encryption. The NovoConnect solution will meet the challenge of facilitating most any team-meeting and ensure that the get-together is a feat of productivity, rather than an exercise in frustration.

To see how NovoConnect can elevate your team-meetings and allow you to tap into your team’s synergistic potential, contact us at info@vivitek.eu to book a demo.