Humor Your Workforce with Meeting Merriment

by Ann Fry and Les McGehee

We are going to continue having these meetings, every day, until I find out why no work is getting done. 

— Unknown

The note reads, "Meeting today at 3:00, conference room, entire team must attend."

"Oh, please — not another meeting!" you think.

Your stress level skyrockets, your workload gets postponed and you rethink the value of anything you might even consider offering at the meeting. You quickly repeat the meeting mantra handed down through the years: "It's better not to say anything, it's better not to say anything..."

You wish it didn't have to be this way. Sound familiar?

A meeting can be called to discuss, to brainstorm, to punish or to do just about anything else. The idea is that a face-to-face, interactive session with individuals and team input is valuable.

The problem is that the team or the individuals introducing an idea in a meeting often are made to feel as if their ideas aren't valuable at all. The new idea often has to prove itself before it even can get all the way on the table. Scrutiny doesn't wait. Introducing ideas in meetings can be like sending the untrained into war.

Here's an example:

The meeting is convened. Your team leader opens the topic of discussion and asks for input. You have what initially seems to be a great idea. You don't know whether your team will think your idea is weird or too new. Or maybe your idea isn't new. You feel insecure.

You begin to describe your idea, but right after you start, one of your teammates mentions a reason why your idea isn't viable or smart. It gets dropped. You feel like the problems with your idea were the focus, not the value in it.

Frustration sets in and you keep your mouth shut for the remainder of the meeting. You have learned that new ideas are risky and quickly criticized, so you vow to play it safer at future meetings.

For this and other reasons, many — if not most — meetings tend to slowly discourage input over time. Our skills at analyzing and judging overwhelm our skills of acceptance and encouragement. This is especially true of innovative or out-of-the-box thinking. Ideas are shut down instead of heightened.

The good news is that meetings don't have to be that way. How do we defeat this depressing meeting scenario at a time when new ideas are more important than ever? There are many ways to ensure meetings are more positive and productive.

Here are four fun pointers that you can use immediately:

• Have an appropriate environment.
  
  Choose a location suitable to your group's size. Small rooms with too many people get stuffy and create tension. A larger room is more comfortable and encourages individual expression.
  
  Lighten up the room with a box with toys inside to spur creativity, reduce stress and build teamwork. Also, food is a great way to help establish a lighter environment. Serve light refreshments — they're good icebreakers and make people feel special and comfortable.

• Start each meeting by letting someone tell a joke.
  
  Or you could have everyone answer the following: "The funniest thing I've seen at work is ..." or "Wouldn't it be fun to..."
  
  Give a little time to get the creative juices flowing. If time is an issue, then you can do what one organization does by having all the meeting members stand and laugh for one full minute before they start. This helps to boost energy for the remainder of the meeting.

• Go to the bag.
  
  Upon arriving, everyone at the meeting should jot down a simple, fun and short break idea on a slip of paper. These could be things such as "Everyone shake hands and compliment each other for 10 seconds — go!" or "Everyone stand up and stretch and yawn out loud for five seconds."
  
  The anonymous ideas are put into a paper bag or a company product and left on the table. When the meeting gets too heavy or stressful, someone announces "Time to go to the bag" and picks an idea for a 30-second activity. This is a humorous touch that isn't time-consuming but does help remove the meeting doldrums.

• "Yes, and ..." exercise.
  
  Here's one of the most fun and positive techniques to get the best out of the ideas offered at a brainstorming meeting. This "proactive agreement" exercise involves embracing and heightening ideas.
  
  Every idea is treated agreeably and encouraged for a brief time as if it's the best idea of the day. You actually start each comment with the words "yes, and." This is done with high energy to expand on the idea offered. A little playful exaggeration is useful here; it pushes the envelope.
  
  Once you have these exciting ideas on the table, you can do the more serious work of analysis. I've seen incredibly innovative, advanced ideas come out of this technique. It's much more adventurous to go too far than it is to inch forward timidly.
  
  Your analysis skills are better applied after the brainstorming, not during. Our analytical mind gets "worked out" plenty on the job already — it's the agreeable, accepting parts of our minds that need to be purposefully exercised.

Ideally, business meetings should be positive community-building experiences that include fun along with the hard work. Your next meeting doesn't have to bring back boring memories of why you hate them. Introduce some of these light, humorous ideas into your meetings, and pretty soon people really will want to attend meetings.

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