5 Ways to Breathe Life Back into Staff Meetings

5 Ways to Breathe Life Back into Staff Meetings While meetings may be important opportunities for managers and staff to communicate, it seems that companies often dont fully utilize them. Arecent study by Meeting Kingfound that around 40 percent of work time is spent in meetings, and around 25-50 percent of time is wasted, which means that, at worst, employees could be spending up to a day in ineffective meetings eachweek. What they also found was a correlation between time spent in meetings and feelings of exhaustion and increased workload, which could be demotivational. Its not that we should throw out meetings,as the study foundthat 92 percent of us value meetings as an opportunity for communication. Rather, its that meetings tend to be missed opportunities. Itdoesnt have to be this way, and I have outlined five tips to breathe life back into your meetings.1. Make Them ShorterThis SalesCrunch s tudy shows that attendee attention levels begin to severely drop off after about 30 minutes, meaning peopleare getting bored. In the first 15 minutes employees are 91 percent attentive, and this drops to 64 percent attentiveness after 45 minutes. Asimple way to reinvigorate your meetings is to keep them to 30 minutes maximum.2. Chaired AgendaPreparing and sticking to an agenda can seem quite constrictive for many a meeting leader, who may feel it cramps their style. Onthe flip side, both this Give Morestudyand the aforementioned Meeting King studyfound that most people find it frustratingwhen there is nochaired agenda.Make properly chaired agendas with action points/takeaways sacrosanct, and this will help boost meeting engagement levels.3. Stand-Up MeetingsThere are obvious health benefits to holdingstand-up meetings instead of slumping in a chair for an hour, but standing upcan also reinvigorate your meetings. Stand-up meetings aretypically shorter generally clocking in at about 15 minutes so they operate within the prime 91 percent attention level. This keeps the meeting focused, and it can help to eradicate distractions. You can holda succession of three or four short, more efficient, high engagement meetings in a week, rather than a single, draining two-hour slog.4. Change the LocationHave you heard of the phenomenon known as Sick Building Syndrome,where people have sick symptoms related to a workplace, but no identifiable cause? These symptoms include aches and pains, fatigue, and poor concentration, none of which will be conducive to your meetings. Once the SBS sufferers leave the building or room, the symptoms disapear. Why not change your meeting location from time to time. Perhaps hold a meetingoutside if its a sunny day, or at the canteen, a local coffee shop, or any place thats a little different fromthe norm to beat SBS and reinvigorate a stale meeting environment.5. Add Some Humor to Your MeetingsOne of the best ways to liven up a dull meeting is to inject some genuine fun, levity, and humor. Try and set a fun, lightheartedtone at the beginning of the meeting, andencourage funny employees. Their jokes can help to reduce tension and add some levity to dire proceedings, making the whole meeting more fun. Those kind of employees can lift environments and meetings with a joke, and they are a gift to your meeting.Id love to hear what suggestions you may have tobreathe life back into your meetings.