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staff meeting ideas

Staff meetings are an important part of any company. They provide a chance for employees to come together and learn about what is happening in the company and to share ideas. But all too often, staff meetings are dull and unproductive. Employees tune out, or worse, they may even doze off. This is not good for morale or for productivity.

According to a study by Steven Rogelberg of the University of North Carolina, 71% of senior managers say that their staff meetings are inefficient and unproductive. The same study also found that 62% of managers say meetings miss the opportunity to create a stronger collaboration.

These statistics are not surprising when you consider that most staff meetings are held in stuffy conference rooms, with employees sitting in uncomfortable chairs, listening to a dry presentation by the boss.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are many ways to make staff meetings more interesting and engaging, contributing to a better workplace. Read on for 15 team meeting ideas to make your next staff meeting more creative, fun, and productive.

The Importance of Engaging Staff Meetings

Staff meetings are an important way to keep team members informed and engaged. They allow for the sharing of ideas and information and help create a sense of community among employees.

An engaging team meeting ensures that employees are motivated and invested in the company’s success. It also helps to build morale and foster a sense of team spirit.

Benefits of Engaging Staff Meetings

There are several benefits to having engaging staff meetings, including:

  • Improved communication: When team members are engaged in the meeting, they are more likely to pay attention and understand the information being presented. This leads to improved communication overall.
  • Increased morale: An engaging staff meeting helps to build morale and create a positive work environment. This can lead to increased productivity and a better bottom line for the company.
  • Improved ideas: When team members are invested in the meeting, they are more likely to share their views regarding bigger picture ideas. This can lead to more innovative and creative solutions.
  • Enhanced team building for a remote team: Remote teams do not have the opportunity to interact with each other on a daily basis. Staff meetings provide a chance for team members to bond and build relationships during remote meetings.

There are a number of ways to make sure that your staff meetings are engaging and productive. Check out yowork.io to make your staff meetings instantly more productive. Meeting management, task management and shared documentation of decisions (etc.) drive performance in your team. It’s free forever, so just give it a try!

But before you start with yowork.io, read our 15 team meeting ideas to get you started:

1. Start With a Bang

Start your team meetings with a bang by doing something out of the ordinary. This could be anything from starting off with a team bonding exercise to throwing in some ice breakers. This will help get everyone’s attention and get the meeting off to a good start.

You could also try starting the staff meeting with a question that will get people thinking. This could be anything from asking how everyone’s weekend was to getting their opinion on a current event. This will help get everyone engaged right from the beginning.

Lastly, you could quote someone who said something interesting or state a statistic that will pique people’s interest. Starting with some ice breakers will help get people’s attention and keep them engaged throughout the meeting.

2. Share a Recent Win

One effective way to keep your staff members engaged during a team meeting is to have them share recent wins. This can be anything from a project they completed successfully to a personal victory.

Not only does this give employees a chance to share something positive, but it also shows that the team is supportive and interested in its individual members. Plus, meaningful conversations like these can help team members learn more about one another and build closer relationships.

Inspire every team member by sharing your own recent wins as well. This will show that you’re still working hard and provide some motivation for everyone to do their best.

3. Hold Meetings In Different Locations

Holding team meetings in different locations can be a great way to remove the boredom of ordinary meetings. This is one of the top staff meeting ideas for young teams consisting of millennials.

By breaking up the monotony of always meeting in the same conference room, you can help get everyone’s attention and keep them interested in what’s happening.

There are many different ways to hold team meetings in different locations. You could try holding a meeting outdoors, in a different part of the office, or even in a different city. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could even try holding a staff meeting in an escape room, which can double as a team-building activity.

Apart from an escape room, other ideas include holding a meeting in a nearby park or even in a café.

Whatever location you choose, make sure it is one that will interest and engage your team members. By mixing things up, you can have an interesting and productive meeting with your team.

staff meeting different

4. Experiment With Different Formats

There are many different ways to experiment with different formats for staff meetings. You could try having a meeting that is strictly Q&A, or one that is focused on brainstorming ideas. Alternatively, you could try a staff meeting that is more relaxed and informal.

You could also try mixing up the format of each meeting. This will help keep employees interested in what’s happening. By changing things up regularly, you can help prevent staff meetings from becoming stale and boring.

Some other ideas for different team meeting formats include having:

  • A roundtable discussion: Roundtable discussions are an excellent way to get everyone’s opinion on a topic. By having a discussion, you can engage staff members and get them thinking about the topic at hand.
  • A panel: Panels are similar to roundtable discussions, but they involve a group of experts who share their thoughts on a topic. This can be a good opportunity to learn about a new topic or get different perspectives on an issue.
  • An open forum: Open forums are a great way to encourage team members to share their ideas. This can be done in person or online, and it can be an effective way to get feedback on ideas or problems.

5. Create a Unique Meeting Ritual

As a meeting leader, if you want to come up with a way to keep employees attentive during a meeting, you might want to consider creating a unique meeting ritual. This could be something as simple as starting every meeting with a quick round of introductions, or it could be something more elaborate, like having a little fun exercise at the beginning of each meeting.

Rituals allow employees to feel like they are part of something larger, and they can help build team spirit. Plus, they can add more fun and excitement to otherwise mundane meetings. If you want to create a meeting ritual that will really capture people’s attention, try to make it interactive and engaging, and don’t forget to ask for input from your team.

Whatever ritual you choose, make sure it is something that will interest and engage your employees. By establishing a routine, you can help keep staff meetings interesting and productive.

6. Introduce a Buddy System

The buddy system is an excellent way to help employees feel more connected to one another and to the company. It can also help staff meetings run more smoothly.

Here’s how it works: Each employee is paired with another employee, and they are responsible for providing support to each other. This could mean helping with tasks, offering encouragement, or simply being a listening ear. By having a buddy system in place, employees can feel more connected to the company and to their co-workers.

The buddy system can also be a great way to encourage employees to participate in meetings. If each employee has someone to buddy up with, they will be more likely to engage in the staff meeting and less likely to tune out.

staff meetings ideas

7. Host Walking Meetings

Managers will say this all the time: “We need to take a walk.” Now, there’s finally a good excuse to do it! Walking meetings are a nice way to get some exercise and fresh air while still getting work done.

Walking meetings are exactly what they sound like: Instead of sitting in a conference room, employees go for a walk while they discuss whatever topic is on the agenda. This can be a great way to get some exercise and fresh air while still getting work done. Plus, it can help employees feel more relaxed and focused.

If you’re not sure how to get started with walking meetings, there are plenty of resources available online. You can find tips on how to plan and conduct a walking meeting, as well as ideas for where to go and what to talk about.

8. Adopt An “Everyone Plays” Policy

Adopting an “everyone plays” policy can be a unique way to keep employees active during a team meeting. This policy means that everyone, regardless of their position or level of experience, has the opportunity to participate in the meeting.

This can help get employees involved and engaged in the staff meeting. It can also help employees learn more about the company and their co-workers. Plus, it can be a lot of fun!

There are a few ways to adopt an “everyone plays” policy. One way is to rotate who leads the staff meeting each week. Rotating communication will give everyone a chance to lead the meeting and share their ideas. You can also allow employees to share ideas during the meeting through a brainstorming session or by giving a presentation.

9. Gamify Meetings

Games are an excellent way to introduce some fun in staff meetings. Play games in your next meeting and add an element of fun and excitement to the proceedings. This will help keep employees interested and motivated, and it will make meetings more enjoyable for everyone involved.

There are a number of ways to gamify meetings. One way is to hold a friendly competition between employees every once in a while. This could be a contest to see who can come up with the best ideas, a fair game to finish a task first, or even an obstacle course!

If you have a remote team, there are plenty of online games that can be played in a meeting, like Kahoot! or Quizlet. You can hold a video call and have everyone compete against each other in real-time.

10. Have A Fishbowl Discussion

The fishbowl meeting is a type of staff meeting in which employees are divided into two groups: those inside the fishbowl and those outside the fishbowl. The fishbowl group discusses a topic while the outside group takes notes and observes. Individuals can enter and leave the fishbowl as needed to keep the conversation flowing.

This type of meeting encourages positive communications within employees and helps everyone gain insights from observing the discussion. Fishbowl discussions give everyone a chance to be heard and can help break down barriers between employees.

11. Lunch and Learn

Lunch and learn is a type of meeting in which employees eat lunch together and learn about a topic from a guest speaker. This can be a great way to get employees learning in a non-professional environment. It can also help build relationships between employees.

There are a few things to consider when planning lunch and learn meetings. First, you need to find a guest speaker who is knowledgeable about the topic you want to discuss. Second, you need to make sure that the meeting space can accommodate a large group. Third, you need to plan enough time for the speaker to present and for employees to ask questions.

Overall, lunch and learn meetings can be an excellent opportunity to engage employees and provide them with learning opportunities.

12. Make Meetings More Visual

When it comes to staff meetings, there can sometimes be a temptation to just stick to the basics – get everyone in a room, go over updates, and call it a day. But if you want to keep your team attentive, you need to find ways to make your meetings more interesting and interactive. One way to do this is by making them more visual.

There are lots of different ways you can make your meetings more visual. For example, you could use charts and graphs to illustrate data or ideas or use images and videos to help explain concepts. You could also try using creative props or displays to help get your point across.

The main thing to keep in mind is that employees are more likely to engage with visuals than with text. So if you want to keep your team engaged, make sure your meetings are visually interesting.

13. Hold Team Pomodoro Sessions

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that can be used to improve productivity. The basic idea is to work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. This cycle is repeated 4 times and then you take a longer break of 20 minutes.

This technique can be applied to team meetings to help everyone stay focused and on task. To do this, each person in the meeting works on their own task for 25 minutes. At the end of the 25 minutes, everyone takes a 5-minute break. This cycle is repeated 4 times and then everyone takes a 20-minute break.

This method can boost engagement and help employees stay focused during meetings. It can also help to prevent meetings from dragging on for too long.

14. Ban Electronics

Banning electronics during staff meetings can be a great way to improve the productivity of meetings. By removing all distractions, meeting participants will be forced to focus on the meeting and what’s being said. This can lead to more productive and informative meetings.

There are a few ways to go about banning electronics during staff meetings. One option is to have everyone turn their devices off when they enter the meeting room. This can be difficult to enforce, however, and may lead to some people tuning out or not paying attention.

A better option may be to allow electronics but ban certain activities, such as checking email or browsing the internet. This approach is easier to enforce and is less likely to disrupt the flow of the staff meeting.

staff meetings gadgets

15. Host a Scavenger Hunt Meeting

Hosting a scavenger hunt meeting is a fun way to bring team members together. Not only is it a fun team-building exercise, but it can also be a very productive way to hold a meeting. Here are a few tips for hosting a successful scavenger hunt meeting:

  • Choose a meeting theme for the scavenger hunt that will be both fun and productive.
  • Choose a location for the scavenger hunt meeting that is easily accessible for all employees.
  • Make sure to provide enough time for employees to complete the scavenger hunt.
  • Be sure to have a prize for the winning team!

By hosting a scavenger hunt meeting every once in a while, you can keep employees motivated and engaged in their work while also getting some important work done.

Wrapping Up

Staff meetings can often feel like a waste of time, but with the right staff meeting ideas, they can be engaging and productive for everyone involved. In this article, we’ve shared some creative staff meeting ideas that will keep employees engaged and motivated. From team-building exercises to reducing meeting length, there are plenty of ideas here to get your next meeting off to a great start.


all images Pixabay

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