Breath new life into boring meetings

Zzzzzzz. Do employees doze off during team or project meetings? Unless you carefully plan these regular meetings, they can turn into status-laden, painfully boring snore fests.

But the right tools and processes can transform meetings into productive, engaging experiences. Here are four strategies for taking your next meeting from boring to brilliant:

Instead of doing that

Do this

Here's how

Spend most of the time with just one person droning on and on and on . . .

one on one meeting

Involve a wider spectrum of team members

Ask one or two team members to report progress on a specific project component
Invite a team member to share best practices

Talk about the same dull subjects every time

bulletin board

Cover topics that are of greatest interest to participants

Ask the open-ended question: “What is going to impact your area?”
Create a poll about potential topics and ask team members to rate interest

Focus on sharing updates and reporting progress

sign next to elevator

Engage team members to solve problems and generate ideas

Do a “deep dive” on one or two topics, and then ask team members a question and facilitate discussion
Hold a problem-solving discussion on a certain issue (Team member says, “Let me describe my challenge” and participants are invited to offer ideas)

Use PowerPoint for everything

energy saver decal

Think outside the box to create interest

Create an “interview with…” segment structured as a radio show
Celebrate successes by showing photos of team members who have made significant accomplishments
Show a fun, off-the-shelf video to inject humor into the meeting

Bring company values to life with internal communication

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