We know that a large number of work-related meetings are unavoidable – whether it be discussing certain issues or sticking points, creating new ideas, updating your team fully or setting up achievable objectives. And However we might try to get around them by calling them ‘catch-ups’, ‘gatherings’ or ‘get-togethers’, they all amount to the same thing. Now the issue is not what we are calling them but what we achieve in them and how we make them as engaging, productive and energetic as possible. Have a look at some of the ideas that we have put into our team meetings below so that your team can enjoy and ultimately – look forward to them!
The Problem With A Traditional Meeting
Any way you look at it, meetings have always been around. If you look back in the olden days, you would see a set up where a group of 5-10 people would all be sitting around a table in a boring blank boardroom. One person would normally lead the meeting reading from a pre-prepared list of points to cover. There is always the normal referring to notes, shuffling of papers and usually 2 or 3 senior people who run the meeting, and it’s their voices that are heard over everybody else’s. It’s obvious that there are better and more proactive ways to hold a meeting where every team member is involved, not just the select few at the top!
Are You A Clock Watcher?
You need to make sure that your meetings are not running over the allotted time that was originally planned. We always find that’s it’s best to keep them short and sweet. Or if that is simply not possible try and schedule a period of time with a number of breaks to make sure that everybody continually engages fully on each new topic that is brought up.
Another important note is to make sure that the end of the meeting, is in fact, the end of the meeting! Give the people a 5-minute warning when you are nearing the end. No need to keep it dragging on! This sense of urgency will help everyone feel that time is valuable and encourage the team to participate all of their thoughts and efforts into a shorter period of time.
More Energy, More Creativity
Energy is the key source of creativity! So it is worth having a think about the best ways to energise yourself and the rest of your group. If your team are more of a lively bunch, think about different ways on how you can enhance this natural buzz and use it as a springboard to get together and brainstorm different ideas! If that doesn’t seem like something you would want to put into practice maybe you could consider getting everyone moving in the meeting room, chatting and interacting with one another to make the atmosphere feel more comfortable and relaxed.
Finding Different Ways To Communicate
We all know that communication goes way beyond verbal. A way of really making the most of this is introducing non-verbal signals in your next meetings. This has a number of different benefits: It can help to avoid interruptions that frequently occur. This also helps for everybody’s voices to be heard, because as we all know, the people with the loudest voices are normally the ones that dominate certain discussions. Introducing signals also helps individual members to subtly point out when people are repeating themselves – that way no one feels that their time is being wasted.
A signal for when you disagree with someone also is a fantastic tool. This way interruptions are avoided and it means that each individual has their fair share of time to speak and express the thoughts and opinions. Many people feel uncomfortable talking over someone when they want to interact and this is a way of putting everybody on a level playing field. When thinking about changing your team meetings around, this can be one of the most effective for getting everyone involved.
Everyone in their Place
A hierarchy can stop the flow of creative ideas in meetings. When it comes to being creative, it should be considered that each individual’s suggestions are of equal value – being more or less senior has no bearing on the quality of an idea. However, it can be hard to change something that is so well 
established. especially in a team meeting scenario!
To add to this, make sure you have a selection of different people leading each meeting. It is helpful for there to be someone who is not only in charge, following the points that have been raised and steering the conversation, but it can stop creativity when you always have the same person in charge. It may be a good place to ask someone in a more junior role to lead the first creative team meeting.
Always keep in your mind that it’s all about creating new ideas to keep yourself and your team engaged. If you feel like you need some more variety within your meetings maybe extend the invitation to new faces and people from different departments, that way you can get an outside perspective!
Holding business meetings isn’t as difficult as it is cracked up to be, it just requires a little thought and effort. And putting these creative team meeting ideas into practice isn’t as time-consuming as you think! These are small changes that you can gradually put into place every time you bring your team together.
Do you have any ideas on how to be more creative in business meetings? Share it with us below!
