A method for operating a user equipment (UE) comprises receiving configuration information including a set of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states; receiving a medium access control-control element (MAC-CE) indicating activation of M TCI states from the set of TCI states, where M is a positive integer; identifying a medium for indicating a TCI state update, wherein the medium is the MAC-CE or a downlink control information (DCI), and the TCI state update is from the M activated states; determining a beam based on the TCI state update; and applying the beam for a reception of both downlink (DL) control and data channels.