Daily and weekly meetings
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2 min read
Effective team meetings on the farm are vital to keeping everyone informed and motivated. There are different types of meetings. Each has a different focus and purpose, e.g., allocation of tasks, problem-solving, know what's happening on farm and giving/receiving feedback. It's important to know which type of meeting is needed and how to structure it so it’s effective and gets the best out of your team.
Well-run meetings result in motivated teams who contribute to decision-making and problem-solving and take pride in their work. Meetings are about making time to save time. Ensure all meetings are structured and purposeful with an agenda and clear expectations around attendance. Encourage everyone’s involvement and contribution.
Daily stand-up meetings
These are short meetings (10-15 minutes) and often held at the same time each day. They are used to talk about the immediate tasks for the day, any obstacles to getting the work done, and to make sure everyone is ok. Make sure it involves everyone on the farm that day and it’s done standing, this keeps everyone focused and the meeting short.
The outcomes from this meeting are:
- Everyone knows what work they’re doing for the day.
- Any obstacles that could interfere with success for the day (including any new hazards) have been identified.
- Work is fairly distributed, and everyone knows what everyone else is doing.
Some questions that can help you get involvement from everyone in these meetings are:
- Is there anything going on today that’s new or different to normal? (could be sick stock, visitors or contractors being on farm etc.)
- What did you work on yesterday that might impact what we’re doing today?
- Is there anything we could do differently to make the work easier/quicker/better?
- Is there anything that might get in the way of anyone completing their jobs?
- Are there any personal needs or circumstances that we need to take into consideration for today’s work? (could be that one of your team members has school parent-teacher interviews to get to in the afternoon, maybe one of the team needs to take their dog to the vet etc.)
Weekly meetings
These meetings are normally longer in duration and are used to outline how things are going and allow team members to contribute and be involved in decisions and problem-solving. Weekly meetings can improve how things get done on-farm and avoid miscommunication by delivering the same message to everyone.
A weekly meeting can also be a good time to undertake training and share team members’ good news stories.
They can also be used to cover:
- Health and safety – any new risks, near misses, or anything else to be aware of.
- Major areas of work coming up on the farm (e.g. supplementary feed making, drying off).
- Targets for the coming period - address higher-level long-term farm goals.
- Long-term targets and goals on the farm and how they are tracking.
- Budgets - planned vs. actual.
Meeting tips
It is important to have some set rules and boundaries for any meeting to ensure everyone stays engaged, they are productive, and people don't feel like their time was best spent elsewhere.
Some tips to make this happen:
- Start and finish on time - don’t wait for latecomers.
- Take notes - particularly if allocating responsibility or accountability.
- Clearly communicate actions, in writing and verbally.
- Share responsibility - rotate who runs the meeting so everyone feels involved and gains experience.
- Respect other’s contributions - give everyone a chance to speak.