Bad meetings are bad for business. The financial consequences of poorly run meetings amount to almost $400 billion each year!
Crazy, right? And the problems don’t stop with the monetary losses involved. Waste enough of peoples’ time in pointless meetings and they’ll soon become disillusioned at work. Everything from boredom and lost motivation to despair and low morale can arise.
It’s both sad and unnecessary. After all, team meetings hold a lot of promise. Done right, they can facilitate problem-solving, communication, team-work, and general camaraderie.
Are you looking for team meeting ideas to achieve exactly that? With a few tips, tricks and tweaks, you can turn those dull meetings into fun and productive ones. Sound good?
Read on for some of the top tips on using team meetings to build a stronger company bond.
Start Positively
The beginning of your team meetings is all-important. Starting on a downer sets the tone for the rest of it. Avoid any bad news from the off and focus on something positive instead.
Opening up the session with a piece of news that’s worth celebrating. Maybe you won a new contract, are seeing awesome results on a recent project, or have received quality feedback from a client.
Taking this tack has the same effect: you’ll set a precedent of positivity to take forward. With everyone feeling good, they’re more likely to engage productively throughout the rest of the meeting.
Keep Them Brief
People are busy! They’ve got a long list of work and not enough time in the day. Throwing in a long, laborious meeting in the morning might be the last thing they can afford.
It’s a recipe for bitterness and resentment, which is the last thing you want.
However, the value of bringing everyone together means they’re still important to hold. A good trick to keeping everyone happy is to keep the meetings short and sweet.
And we’re talking really short. For instance, you could use the meeting room booking system to schedule in 7-minute meetings each day.
They come and go before you know it. You cover the main points, reap the benefits of coming together, and everyone gets back to work with no complaints of wasted time.
Use a Timer
The idea of a shorter meeting time might be positive, but we all know how easy it is for them to overrun. Make sure you stick to the time-limit that’s been set. Don’t, and you know there’ll be unhappy faces around the group.
Which is fair enough given that you promised one thing and delivered another.
Using a timer is a simple idea for ensuring you stick to the time-limit. Whether you use a simple egg-timer or a digitized countdown clock on the wall, the effect is the same: it creates a sense of urgency for everybody in the room.
There’s something inherently stimulating about running out of time! You see the clock tick down and can’t help but feel a dose of adrenaline. And that’s exactly what you’re looking for from people!
You want the team to be inspired and enthused. You want their attention and participation so that everyone’s firing off one another. A brief, energetic meeting is a sure-fire way to get it.
Let Others Run the Meeting
Does one person run these team meetings every single time?
It might be time to mix things up.
Another way to keep things interesting and involve the team is to ask everyone to take it in turns to lead the meeting. This empowers the group to take part and creates a different dynamic in the room each time.
Oftentimes, the success of a meeting is tied up with the person leading it. If they have energy and enthusiasm them it tends to rub off on everyone else! But it’s hard to sustain that energy when you’re running meetings every single day.
Giving other people a chance removes that problem too.
Get Interesting Guests to Come In
Why not invite guest speakers in as well?
Sure, doing this for a daily meeting wouldn’t be feasible. Likewise, it wouldn’t make sense if you’re only wanting a 7-minute morning get-together to start off the day.
For longer, one-off meetings, though, inviting someone in can be a fantastic way to ignite enthusiasm in the team and develop their skillsets.
Stand Up Instead of Sitting Down
Do you ever get tired of sitting down during your team meetings?
Heck, does sitting down seem to make you tired during the meetings?
You can rest assured that you’re not the only one. It’s almost impossible to stay seated throughout a dull meeting, in a warm room, without dozing off. This might be the primary reason for the lack of energy you’re feeling throughout the sessions.
Standing up changes all that! It keeps people engaged and active and concentrated on the task.
Combine this with the shorter meetings we suggested above. After all, nobody wants to stay standing during a mammoth meeting!
Ask for Feedback
You might have no idea why your meetings suck.
The office morale might have dipped and results could be slipping with them. Maybe the atmosphere in the meetings is stuffy and lethargic when you want electricity and energy.
Asking for feedback will let you know how to improve the situation.
Track the performance of your meetings with brief surveys.
Imagine that you’ve just finished the morning meeting. Ask each team member to score it out of 10 on a number of relevant metrics. From there, ask more specific details about how you could do things better. Enact those suggestions and continue to track the scores.
You should see a steady improvement.
Try These Team Meeting Ideas Today
Team meetings can work wonders for a business, but only when they’re done well!
Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. The dull, mind-numbing, time-wasting nature of many meetings costs businesses billions of dollars every year.
Hopefully, these team meeting ideas will help you avoid the same fate.
Want to read more articles like this one? Check out the ‘consulting’ section of the website now to learn more about team meeting ideas and consulting strategies for your company culture.
