The Power of a Check-In Process at Team Meetings

When my daughter attended her first preschool, the almost- and barely-three-year-olds would, upon arrival, take a photo of themselves that had been glued to a magnet and place it in either the 'yes' or 'no' column to a question of the day. Then they'd take a paper cutout of themselves and Velcro it onto a fun landscape scene with all their school friends.

This was a symbolic way for the children to transition from their arrival from family into their classroom time. Believe it or not, this mental transition time is needed for all ages for our brains to be fully present and ready to give our attention to the task at hand.

In a one-on-one meeting, this transition, or warm-up, time happens naturally with personal chit chat. And the same thing usually happens naturally within the first few minutes of a team call. However, in a team setting, it tends to be fragmented. The early arrivers do the chatting, and the last one to join gets whiplashed into the start of the meeting. Not everyone hears each others' personal warm-up.

My collaboratively oriented colleagues and I recommend a check-in process at the beginning of your team meetings. What I mean is, before you get down to any business, go around the virtual room and hear from each person. (This is for typically sized teams and working groups - other processes are needed for larger all-hands meetings). Do this in a council process, meaning essentially that you're passing an invisible talking stick, so the person with the stick talks, and everyone else listens to that person.

For teams new to this, it's helpful to have a prompt. My favorite prompt is quite generic: How are you arriving to this meeting? I've seen teams over the years take this to a more playful tone and ask a random fun question each meeting, like What's your favorite type of ice cream?. For teams well-established in this ritual, no prompt is needed. Team members just say what they need to say to become present to the team and the work ahead.

For technical teams unaccustomed to any touchy-feely stuff whatsoever, keep the question focused on the work, such as What are you looking forward to in today’s meeting? or Why is today’s decision important to you? Technically minded folks tend to be more comfortable with a prompt framed around thoughts instead of feelings. It’s a bit trickier to do work-related check-in topics because the team is more likely, without a disciplined facilitator, to digress into discussion.

Let’s get back to the ‘why’. It's important for a team to do a collective check-in process at their meetings for several reasons -- here are three:

1) Get heads in the game

If you're coming off a stressful meeting just prior to this one, it helps to be able to say that out loud. If you're feeling a bit under the weather and are only bringing 80%, it helps to let your team know. You're clearing the space in your head to allow the focus of the meeting in front of you.

2) Build cohesion

Going around and hearing how everyone is doing gives team members a sense of, well, how everyone is doing. That's kind of important to know, don't you think -- how your team members are doing? It's a snapshot of how the team itself is doing. And when YOU say how you're doing, authentically, and are witnessed and heard by your teammates, you feel more connected to them. And for the introverts in the room, it really does help participation later on to have gotten their voices into the space at the beginning.

3) The power of ritual

Conducting a formal check in process can feel a bit awkward for teams who have not done it before. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with the process. It means the team is behaving more consciously and intentionally together than it had before. Eventually, a team will get in a groove with checking in and it will become a cherished ritual that they come to rely on.

If you want to introduce a check in process where there was nothing before, you may need to be a bit playful about it. ("Ok guys, we're going to try this thing I read about from a leadership coach and go around to say how we're doing. I know it's kind of weird but let's just be nerds for a moment and give it a shot. But I really want to give us each a chance to speak.")

If your team can be disciplined and intentional about a check-in ritual, that behavior can grow and expand to decision-making and dialogue processes down the road.

Give it a shot! If you need a pep talk or more guidance, give me a call.