Monday, December 22, 2014

How To Make Meetings Better

1.

Improve collaboration in meetings by removing the chairs from the conference room. Researchers at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis used body sensors on two groups of participants and found that team members who stood were more engaged, less territorial about their ideas, and generated more creative results.

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/27031.aspx

2.

Start your longer meetings by giving everyone a chance to share what they need to do or to say to be fully attentive. One person might have a specific question. If they have more than one then they should have asked their set of questions beforehand. Another person might need to leave at a specific time. Yet another person might just want to vent about being in meetings all day. If the same person makes this complaint often then they might not be ready to be included in these meetings.

3.

Make more meetings more engaging by making them voluntary. I find it pretty satisfying if one of my meetings finishes and no one leaves. The meeting has developed a life of it's own.