Holding team meetings is an effective way to ensure that office operations run smoothly, problems are solved promptly and the latest information is shared among colleagues.

But not all meetings are successful. They can run on too long, go off track and fail to address important issues the team intended to cover. So, how do you make sure your team meetings are effective?

First of all, says Joanne Ferguson co-founder and president of Advisor Pathways Inc. in Toronto, keep meetings short — but hold them on a regular basis.

“One way to ensure that the day-to-day business runs smoothly is to have weekly meetings,” she says. “Fifteen minutes to half an hour is efficient. If a meeting is too long, people will feel as if you are wasting their time.”

There will be exceptions. For example, the last meeting of the month might last a little longer, because you may want to include a monthly review. Also, strategic meetings that are held quarterly, semi-annually or annually to review goals and assess progress will also be longer because they are more detailed.

To keep the weekly meeting short and running smoothly, Ferguson suggests having a set agenda so you won’t have to create a new agenda each week. The topics will always be the same, so everyone will know ahead of time what is going to be covered and they can come prepared. Topics may include the markets, investment strategies and administration.

“Team members can bring information relating to these general topics or, if there is something else that will affect the team, such as a new procedure, it can be discussed at that meeting,” adds Allison Merrow, a coach and consultant at Advisor Pathways.

If something important comes up that’s time-sensitive, it can be added to the agenda. “If it’s important and needs to be addressed right away, bring it up,” Ferguson says.

If someone is having a problem with a client, for example, he or she can bring the matter up at the weekly meeting so that team members are aware of the situation the next time the client calls.

But if it’s something that can wait, save it for the monthly meeting; otherwise, weekly meetings will run too long.

As well, says Dave Soteros, president of Alrym Consulting Services in Toronto, make sure each meeting is necessary: “It’s not about how many meetings you have; it’s about the meeting being valuable.”

If a meeting is scheduled only to gather or exchange information, there may be a more creative or efficient way to do so, such as using e-mail.

Consider the cost of a meeting, Soteros says. “If you calculate the team’s hourly rate along with that of the leader, think of what it’s costing the firm,” he says. “Those people are away from their phones for an hour and are not being [otherwise] productive.”

Here are more strategies you can use to ensure your meetings are productive:

> Don’t put off a scheduled meeting if a team member is away. “Every time you put off a meeting,” says Ferguson, “it’s harder to get back on track.”

> Assign one person to be in charge of the agenda, and it doesn’t have to be the primary advisor. Give the job to someone on the team with good organizational skills.

> Start each meeting with a quick review of what happened the previous week.

> Find out if those who had tasks to work on accomplished them.

> Summarize at the end of the meeting by reviewing who is expected to accomplish certain tasks.

> Pass along the key highlights of the meeting to team members who were absent.

> Set up a contact-management system that contains meeting highlights so any team member who is away can get the updates.

Says Ferguson: “It’s the absent person’s job to find out what happened at the meeting.” IE