“Teamwork makes the dream work!”

“There’s no I in team!”

“Together We Achieve More!”

We’ve all seen these sorts of phrases and quotes at some point in our lives. Maybe you heard your high school sports coach yell one of these phrases in the middle of a game, or perhaps you’ve even seen one of the above quotes on a motivational poster. By the time we reach adulthood, teamwork is a value that has been heavily ingrained in our lives.  

In the workplace, it’s no different! Teamwork is crucial to the success of practically any business, and the more cohesive a team a company has, the better chance that company has at success. Sometimes, workplace teams can come together organically and will work seamlessly with one another almost effortlessly. Other times, however, workplace groups need a little guidance to mesh with one another fully. 

This guidance can come in the form of company retreats or general team-building exercises, but most of those activities are one-time deals. To consistently keep your team on the same page and create a space to come together more as a group, you could consider making some sort of weekly update system. Weekly updates can look different for every company, but when done correctly, they provide a natural place in the work environment to connect with coworkers, stay up to date with one another’s progress, and much more. 

In all honesty, the most challenging part of weekly updates is probably getting the initial system started! Once you have a well-organized method and delivery for your updates, they will tend to run themselves pretty smoothly. That’s why we’re here to get you started on the right path towards the best update methods you can find. 

As we mentioned, weekly updates will differ depending on your workplace, so we came up with some handy tips and a few different formats that you could try to work into your business. Sometimes, working your weekly updates into a staff meeting is the best idea, while other times, digital communication is ideal. Read through our shortlist of ideas, and see if any of them would work for your company!

Keys To A Good Update

Regardless of the presentation, a few aspects should always be included (or avoided) in a weekly update. You want to optimize your updates for the most amount of information with the least amount of unnecessary time wasted, and by doing so, you can ensure that the weekly updates are genuinely valuable for your team. 

• Keep It Short – Nobody likes a long meeting. Even if the session is crucial to the success of a company, if it drags on and on, fewer people will pay attention or care. For an excellent weekly update, keep it short, sweet, and to the point! 
• Balance the Give and Take – Managers will often lead the majority of the weekly update, leaving a little time at the end for questions and comments. However, if the update is more collaborative, you can address more areas of the company at once. Spread the talking and updates around!
• Make Fixes and Give Congratulations – Besides updating everyone on the company’s status, your weekly update should include the mistakes and successes of the previous week. Having both the highs and lows of a week can help your team see the areas of work that still need attention while still giving credit where credit is due. 

Team Meetings

As arguably the most common setting for a weekly update, team meetings are always a solid choice to institute weekly updates. Unlike all-staff meetings, team meetings give you the exact group of people you are trying your hardest to reach. This is extremely handy, as it allows you to tailor the weekly update in a more personal way. 

Typically, a team meeting happens at the beginning of each work week and sets expectations for the week ahead. It’s an excellent place to plan out agendas and talk about deadlines, but it should also be a good place for general updates, reminders, and everything that goes into a successful weekly update! You might even be able to work in some team-building activities at these meetings, which can help you come closer together as a unit. 

Making it work: To start weekly updates in your team meetings, make sure you already know the team meeting agenda items. It might help to create a “Team Meeting Agenda” template that you can change weekly. Look over all of the things that generally go into a team meeting and find a way to add in weekly updates. Consider adding in some simple team-meeting ice breaker activities at the beginning, which can help with team bonding! 

Company Update Letters

Another great way to keep your team in the loop is through weekly letters or emails. This is a much lower energy, lower effort solution than team meetings, as you simply need to write out all your details about the previous week and send them to your team! This can also help with a hybrid or entirely remote team, as it reduces the stress of scheduling a time convenient for everyone. 

In your letters, make sure to still follow the tips we outlined above; keep it short, make sure you get input from other people, and address the highs and lows. Otherwise, the content of the letter is entirely up to you. If you want to start each letter by congratulating one of your team members, do it! If you want to outline your agenda items and try to break the ice with a work-related pun, that’s totally up to you!

Making it work: As long as you feel comfortable about the information you put in the letter, this is a pretty simple and straightforward strategy. Just be sure to listen to your team and make changes to the format and content of the letters as necessary.  

Remote Meetings

To bridge the gap between the previous two methods, you could add weekly updates to remote meetings! Team meetings are great for in-person work, and weekly letters work well for fully remote work, but if your company is a mix of both, then the remote meeting might be the method for you. Video conferencing technology has made it easier than ever to have remote sessions, and they are practically the same as in-person meetings! 

Virtual meetings can have all the same aspects as the team meeting ideas we mentioned above, except icebreaker games become virtual icebreakers, and nobody has to sit around an enormous desk like all the other board meetings they’ve ever attended. This method is the best of both worlds, as you can share writing, documents, and lists with all of the team members while still having the format and formality of a meeting! 

Working With LACOSTA

Without a great team, LACOSTA wouldn’t be where we are today. Thanks to our fabulous team members, we have provided over 30 years of janitorial and managed labor solutions to all sorts of industries. 

If you want to begin a partnership with LACOSTA or learn more about the world of business, reach out to us and check out our blog!