Meetings—Make Them More Fun—Get More Done!

Q. Is there a way to make meetings more fun—or at least more lively—without being unprofessional? We have about 10 meetings a week—often with the same people. We’ve made the meetings effective: a facilitator circulates an agenda in advance; a scribe visualizes ideas during the meeting on a flip chart; the timekeeper keeps us on track; we start on time; we rotate facilitators. —Eleanor M.

A. Yes, you can—if you can get management’s support. The existing culture has to support any change. But research into the results of putting more humor and fun in the workplace is consistent and clear: People get more done, and come up with more good ideas, better, faster, and more consistently when they enjoy themselves. Here’s another surprise: the same people who attend and run the meetings can probably give you many ways to make the meetings more fun. Make that topic the focus of one of your next meetings.

Creative ad agencies learned the importance of fun on the job a long time ago, and put games like darts, table hockey and ping pong in the break rooms. It’s not unusual to see a creative staff playing basketball in the creative department’s aisles as they struggle to solve a client problem. (Somehow, I still can’t see this happening in the agency’s Accounting or Legal departments.) Looked at in a more traditional way, people who make their living by being creative have found ways to unleash their right-brain thinking power, making them more creative, and more productive—more often. You may have to get some informal support from several higher-ups in your workplace to get the go-ahead. Drop hints in the coffee room and cafeteria: “You know, I’ve been thinking; I bet we could generate more ideas at meetings—and solve more problems faster, if we built more creativity into the sessions. What do you think?” Keep building support to get everyone’s buy-in.

Some ideas for more creative meetings:

Ask one or two people in the group who can draw to “mind-map” meeting ideas on a flip chart. Cartoon figures like a clock, book, tree, or computer are sketched in quickly to highlight key ideas. Colors, arrows, dotted lines, circles, boxes and squiggles can show relationships and movement of thought.

Deal out cards from Roger von Oech’s “Creative Whack Pack” and help people explore more mind-expanding activities when things bog down. This alone will give you 52 great mind-expanding ideas.

Start the meeting with a “Stump-The-Boss” contest. Richard Block, CEO of AGI, Inc., in Melrose Park, Illinois, challenges himself to answer his employees’ toughest questions about anything to do with work. He believes the sessions help encourage open communication and send a message that everyone’s accountable to each other. The toughest questioner gets a prize.

Use a skit to highlight upcoming goals, marketing concepts or corporate objectives. Alltel Corporate Services in Little Rock, Arkansas once featured a skit based on the Wizard of Oz at an annual meeting. In the following months, they returned to this theme to reinforce goals and objectives. The production group at one Arthur Andersen office wanted to explain changes in roles and responsibilities in their department. They created a skit presented in a talk-show format, with someone’s playing a talk show hostess as their MC. The outcome was hilarious and people easily understood and remembered the changes.

Start a meeting by asking each person to complete an open-ended teaser: “Wouldn’t it be great if…” or “If I were the general manager I would…” or “My biggest pet peeve is…” or “We’d increase our profits if we…”

Pick a Dilbert or Far Side cartoon at random, show it as a transparency, and brainstorm for five minutes: “Does any of this theme apply to us? What can we do about it?”

Have a one-minute “show-and-tell’ by each person. Each person must bring something work-related but three-dimensional—visual—to show and explain.

Use puzzles or jumbled word games at breaks to change the pace. Use this same approach when presenting a key idea, and ask the group to discover the real idea. Example: getting people to sort out “Dureec drecit skir” and discover that it means “Reduce credit risk” can help people remember the main idea more easily—and longer. (Did you try to decipher the jumbled words? If so, you were involved.)

Instead of always holding a meeting in a formal business room, why not have more focused “coffee breaks” in more relaxed settings like the cafeteria or break room—or a nearby McDonalds? (Comfortable couches and chairs in the usual meeting room won’t hurt, either.)

Hat’s off to Dave Hemsath and Leslie Yerkes for their book, “301 Ways to Have Fun at Work,” which suggested many of the ideas just mentioned.