5 Ways to Stop Hosting Boring Meetings
Your audience deserves more from you than another long unending meeting.
Stop hosting boring meetings if you want people to contribute to your initiatives.
-DesignACE
We have all attended enough meetings for ten lifetimes and maybe even 100. Yet, we've all been stuck on a call, checking emails, writing a report, or daydreaming of anything other than the 100th slide someone is showing you. All while in the back of your mind, you're thinking, "This could have been an email!".
Our recent LinkedIn poll reveals that 57% of respondents spent 3-6 hours in daily meetings. That's an incredible amount of time on zoom or with people in a meeting room. No wonder meetings can sometimes feel excruciating, resulting in little productive action.
Forbes estimates that 70% of all meetings are a waste of time. Therefore, we are making it our mission to help revitalize people's days and bring back constructive discussions.
Table stakes: Have a Clear Objective
Objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Define your goals and ensure they are realistic and appropriate for the attendees you want to invite, in line with the allotted timeframe. Having a clear objective will give your meeting purpose and is a north star to guide you as your plan the rest of your workshop components.
Use our free objective template: Docs | Jamboard
Table Stakes: Have a Clear Agenda
An agenda can help provide context and set expectations.
Planning a meeting without an agenda is a recipe for confusion and distractions. The more prepared attendees feel, the more likely they will participate and contribute. In addition, ask for feedback ahead of time to create buy-in on the agenda, so people know you'll cover what is important to them. An agenda will help you accomplish the following:
Sets expectations
Prepare people
Focus attendee
Stay on schedule
Increase productivity
Pro Planning Tip
This simple equation gives you a rough idea of how much time each person could speak for if the meeting were evenly divided.
Open Discussion: Aim for 5–10 minutes of speaking time per person.
Target discussion: Aim for 1–3 minutes of question time per person.
Read our article on Always use a Meeting Agenda and Our Legendary Tips.
With a clear purpose established, it's time for some fun. So here are our five tips for hosting productive meetings people enjoy.
#1. Have Rules of Engagement
Make a point to read all your rules of engagement out loud to level set expectations.
Discussions can sometimes lead to tense moments of spirited debate. A great way to kick off on the right foot is by establishing rules that will govern your meeting.
Our favourite rules of engagement:
Build on the ideas of others
Let others speak
One conversation at a time
Be visual
Stay focused & reduce distractions
Use kind words and defer judgement
#2. Start with an Ice-breaker
The goal is to get everyone to speak in the first 5-minutes of your meeting.
Kick off your meeting with an ice-breaker to get people comfortable and ready to participate. They ignite conversations and make people feel safe to explore perspectives and voice their opinions.
First, a leader can use them to get to know a team or introduction activity for new members.
Second, ice-breaking activities are an excellent way to get to know each other while improving creative energy.
Finally, leaders can use a wide range of ice-breaker games to start the conversation.
Many of the best ice-breaker questions are open-ended and encourage conversation. Using this type of question means that people can respond to the question and talk about something they find exciting or interesting to the group. Discover our set of 59 Ice Breaker Questions, Star a Meaningful Conversation.
Some ice-breaker questions are the following:
What would it be if you could only have one luxury for the rest of your life?
What's your favourite hobby and why?
If you could choose anyone to be your mentor, who would it be and why?
What was your favourite book as a child and why?
What is your favourite movie of all time and why?
#3. Use a Team Building Activity
Life is too short and meetings are too long to not have some fun.
Team building activities give participants a low-stakes (and, ideally, fun) setting to discover each other's working preferences, strengths, thought processes, and problem-solving approaches. These are the ingredient blocks of a high-functioning team.
Team-building activities are an excellent way to build rapport.
Activities can bring energy into the meeting.
A host can identify their people's goals, motivations, and strengths.
Team building activities help employees develop team spirit and improve their motivation and willingness to help one another. As a result, teams are more productive and work together cohesively to achieve common goals and get the job done.
Here are five types of meeting activities:
Warm Up: A quick exercise to shift their focus to the meeting.
Mapping: A primary activity to collect and sort data.
Brainstorming: To ideat and collaboration new ideas.
Wrap-up: Review learnings from the meetings.
Retrospective: Reflect on wins, losses, and learnings.
#4. Utilize an Idea-Parking Lot
All ideas are worth discussing… just not worth derailing your meeting.
If your meetings are getting unruly or your group is easily off-topic, try using an idea-parking lot. This technique allows for more interaction and creativity without going down a rabbit hole. An idea-parking lot can also help break up those long and tedious discussions and let everyone share some brain power. Here are a few ways that you can use this idea parking lot effectively:
Have an area on your whiteboard established as the Idea-Parking Lot.
When an idea is not on the agenda, add it to the Idea-parking lot.
Save time at the end of the meeting to review and rate the ideas.
This simple activity can help determine the most feasible ideas for future meetings. It can also help determine which team members will be in charge of implementing these ideas.
The point of the Idea-Parking Lot is to balance creativity with the flow of conversation. Therefore, you do not want to shut down someone's idea or dismiss a topic because it was not on the agenda. This structure allows new topics to be thrown out and tracked without derailing the meeting.
Check out article 7 Reasons Team-building Activities will Transform your Organization.
#5. Give the Gift of 5 Minutes
Nothing is more fun than finishing early.
The time of your meetings should be 25 or 55 minutes, so there is a 5-minute buffer before the next meeting begins. Without a doubt, many people are in back-to-back meetings all day, so they will appreciate having a few minutes of breathing space before their next meeting begins. After all, you want people to leave feeling productive and energized.
You get what you give, so stop hosting boring meetings. Instead, let's start having productive conversations today.
