Can you help with the challenge of keeping staff meetings fresh and interesting?

People are motivated to pay attention if they know the meeting will be short. Some things, like recognitions, should be disseminated on a timely basis via email, rather than take time during a meeting. Same with updates on burnout or stress.

To make a meeting move quickly, try one where no one sits. A stand up meeting gets everyone to the point, and standing keeps them from getting distracted.

Also, no blackberries or smartphones allowed. Make it clear up front, no such devices will be tolerated. A dozen years ago, I had a CEO who would not tolerate people looking at devices. One woman had her pager set to buzz every time she got a voice mail. The second time it buzzed the Chairman picked it up, and without interrupting what he was saying, threw it down a stairwell.

I second @zenvelo

If you have to break it up into a biweekly thing instead of monthly in order to keep it at the 20 minute level, do it. Gather, pass information, air grievances, goodbye. Team building should be done daily as needed, not an event for staff meetings.

The best meeting is a short meeting. Don’t meet just because you have to and it is on the schedule. Meet because you have something to say. Do it, and be done. Nothing is worse that having a meeting that goes for an hour – when the important stuff is done in 20 minutes.

Second point – meetings need to be interactive. Not one person talking and droning on. That’s the worst.

I agree short and sweet, but I am not sure if I agree with @Seek_Kolinahr about two meetings a month if the meeting requires people to come in early or stay late on a shift. I don’t know if that is the case for your meetings. I really hated coming in a half hour early before my morning schedule. Since I don’t know what the scheduling case is, I will offer this, information that needs to be given out can be done at the beginning of a shift way more often in 5 minutes without anyone having to adjust their schedule. I held morning meetings almost every other day, and then when the afternoon people came in the day people told the evening people. We repeated the same things a few days in a row if it was important.

What type of workplace is it? Manufacturing? Hospital? Are you just meeting with managers? Entire staff?

Rotate the person in charge .

We’re an emergency and referral veterinary hospital. Some of our folks have to drive in from 45 minutes away, so it needs to be worth their time. Because some people only work overnights, or only weekends, or staggered shift changes, if I tried to meet in smaller groups I’d spend half my work week trying to meet with everyone.

Because of the strange shifts, a staff meeting is an opportunity for people with different responsibilites and different points of view to get together to discuss issues and ideas. We use a group email for memos and requests for shifts changes and last minute invitations, but no one like to feel that they get constantly harrangued via email or have a manager that never communicates directly – important issues and policy changes need to be in person.

I have learned the hard way that meetings should not just be about things that have gone worng and ways that people have screwed up. I’ve worked very hard to develop a mix of necessary information, supportive training, and fun. It’s in the latter category that I’m looking for ideas – something that engages and is interactive, but also imparts some helpful life or job skills.

Food

I’ll second @tinyfaery – food. If you are going to make them come all the way to work on possibly a day off or completely different time from their work hours, pay for a meal. But, honestly, I think it sucks to have to do that every month if I worked there, especially if it is always out of sequence with my shift, do you at least change the meeting day and time each month?

How large is the staff? You should be able to meet with supervisors, and the. Have them responsible for meeting with the rest of the staff so one single meeting with everyone isn’t necessary.

Do you pay for the gas for the people who come in on their day off?

Have you tried video conferencing instead?
Could save a lot of driving time etc.
Web Cams. etc

Add humor in some way— meetings are much more tolerable when there’s some humor, joking and laughing.

I am always super bored in meetings and do everything I can to avoid them. The monotony and the droning on about things that are not pertinent to my job drive me crazy when I could be productive. Over half our staff just play on their cell phones and don’t listen to anything at all, that’s how boring it is.

To make them interesting, I would make them quick and require a response of some kind (participation) from the staff, otherwise it’s nothing that can’t be put in an email if it’s just delivering information.

Don’t add anything solely for the purpose of keeping it “fresh and interesting” – really, this just means more wasted time. If everyone in the meeting is bored, I have to wonder – do you really need to be sharing this information in a meeting? It sounds like the attendees think they know everything they need already. Perhaps they are right. Re-evaluate what information needs to be shared via a meeting. Maybe you can shorten them, or eliminate some of them.

And heavens, yes – provide food.

The few times I’ve had to coordinate these types of things among two-shift and three-shift people I’ve decided to hold separate meetings for each group, so that they don’t have to accommodate their schedule to an arbitrary meeting time of mine.

The groups that I addressed in this way were so appreciative of not having their schedules interrupted by having to come to work on their off time that I didn’t have to work very hard to gain their interest in the things that I had to present. Fortunately, I knew that I’d never have to do that month in and month out, because I sure didn’t like having to arrange things that way. But it definitely keeps the staff motivated, I think, when they know that you’ll go that extra mile for them.

Have a relevant agenda. Only meet when there are things you really need to discuss and action. Keep to the agenda and clamp down on people using time to self-promote and waffle. If there isn’t much on the agenda, postpone and reschedule.

I don’t think meetings are the right venue for team building and motivational/work health type activities. That might be better as voluntary but dedicated ‘lunch time’ sessions, where people share food and listen to someone speak on a work-life balance topic or something.

I also have to wonder why the entire company needs to be at one meeting. Can’t you have a “department heads” meeting, and then each department have their own meeting to pass on the info that is relevant to the department?

I mean, Customer Service doesn’t give a crap about how much packing tape costs, and Shipping doesn’t want to hear about the new phone system. Seriously.

When I took over my department last year, I moved 80% of former meeting content to eMail communication.

Then with 20% left to cover, I made the weekly meeting every other week.

I (try) to keep it to an hour, am upbeat and (possibly) funny, and often bring food.

This quarter, I’m experimenting with only inviting folks who are pertinent to the topic at hand.

^ and I am sure your staff thank you for these changes.

@Bellatrix: Over thirteen years, I was/am a director for five of those. The rest I was a regular old teacher – so I try to see it from both sides.

We have quarterly meetings that everyone from all locations is required to attend. My department has weekly teleconferences, and the rest is conveyed via email and our HR payroll portal. The quarterly meetings are for global concerns such as OSHA, benefits enrollment, and general operational business. Our teleconferences are about clinical and procedural concerns specific to our department.

None of these are very enjoyable, but I do like the opportunity for anyone to speak during the departmental meetings, where we can ask questions and present ideas. If you can present things that supports the idea that it is a team effort and everyone’s position is important, that can go a long way.