Are you wondering how to make staff meetings more fun? Team meetings are renowned for being boring and, to many employees, a waste of time. In fact, one survey shows that over 75% of meeting participants are annoyed by meetings they deem unnecessary, and many more will agree they find them boring, even if it’s just from time to time. So, as a meeting host in your business, it’s up to you to spice things up and bring a spark that will keep everybody engaged. To help you get started, here are seven techniques you can use.
1. Use grouping
One of the most common meeting tactics to use is known as ‘breakout groups’. This is a type of meeting where you’ll introduce a certain point or subject and then break the teams up into groups to discuss it. As you can imagine, this is ideal for brainstorming activities.
“Try to split up groups of people, so each group is as diverse as possible. At the end of the session, bring the teams back together and discuss all your points as a team,” shares Mary Parker, an HR Manager for UK Writings.
2. Try team building efforts
You may have heard of team-building days, but there’s no reason why you can’t bring a team-building exercise into your meetings to bring everyone together and to get the mind focused. This is a great way to boost employee morale, build company culture and make the team socially aware.
You could give your team a puzzle or play a simple Q & A game. Team meetings don’t have to be completely work-related either – they could solely focus on the team building aspect and be used as ten-minute introductions to get everybody engaged.
3. Include engaging presentations
One of the best ways to bring new life into your meetings is by creating a visual presentation, such as a PowerPoint. This adds a visual element to your meetings and is a great way to share information in an easily digestible format.
You can add graphics, images, videos, graphs, text, and any other form of data or media that will help to keep the participants of your meeting engaged. Aim to produce high-quality presentations for your team meetings. Here are some tools that can help:
- Grammarix & Studydemic
These are two online tools you can use to check the grammar in your presentation. - Revieweal
This website reviews copywriting services that can create content for your presentation, as recommended by the HuffingtonPost in Write My Essay article. - Let’s Go and Learn & My Writing Way
These blogs have a tonne of writing guides you can follow to improve your general writing skills. - Australian Reviewer
This is an online writing community where you can meet writers from around the world to improve your skills. - Cite It In
This is a free online tool to help you add citations, references and quotes to your presentation professionally. - Writing Populist & Academadvisor
These are two services that can help you to edit the content of your slides to perfection.
4. Change the scenery
Do you always hold your meetings in the same room? Why not mix things up by changing your meeting’s venue? Perhaps you could book another room in your office building. You could try meeting in a huddle space or taking your team to a nearby café or quiet place to sit.
“One of the more popular meeting places that people enjoy is going outside. Not only does this give your team a bit of sunlight and fresh air, but it also helps to break up the day, keeps your participants engaged and focused and makes a nice change from a boring meeting room,” explains Sarah Cattle, an HR Manager for UKServicesReviews.
5. Keep your meetings short
If your meetings are dragging on and on, it’s only natural that people are going to get bored, switch off and become disinterested in what’s being said. That being said, it’s so much better for you and the rest of your team to keep things short and engaging.
This means if you’re having a meeting, it’s better to stick to a selection of topics and subjects that you’re talking about, rather than trying to go on and on and cram in absolutely everything you have to say. As a rule of thumb, try and keep your meetings to around 30 minutes maximum.
6. Switch up positioning
When your team comes into your meeting, have you ever paid attention to how they seat themselves?
Typically, you’ll see people sit in the same places and next to the same people. This is great, but if people are mucking around, or the same people are hiding at the back trying not to be involved, this will contribute to an unsuccessful meeting.
Instead, try mixing people up and getting them sitting next to people, and in places, that they wouldn’t normally sit. This is great for brainstorming team meetings, especially when group discussion is implemented.
7. Add an extra touch
This is only scratching the surface when it comes to ways to enhance and revitalize your meetings with what works for you.
To help you get off on the right foot, here are some extra touches you can add to bring energy into your meetings, and to make them more fun:
- Get a different employee to bring in food for each meeting and vote best food every month
- Break your group into small groups for discussion (mix people up)
- Every time someone ‘crushes’ an idea, get another member to throw a soft toy at them saying, “Let’s give it a ”
- Be charismatic when talking
- Make eye contact with the people in your meeting
- Concentrate on your body language
- Spotlight employees with rewards and recognition
Whether your hosting team meetings, teleconferences or office workshops, it’s important to always add your own flair to effectively engage employees. The next time you have a team meeting, make sure you have these 7 tips in your back pocket.
Are you having trouble engaging your employees? Check out this guide highlighting four ways to start measuring the results of your engagement programs.
