Who hates meetings?

They can be so boring, so pointless and just plain tedious.

BUT a great meeting can be informative, inspiring and a lot of fun.

So how do you become the meeting champion when people race to your event and action happens?

1) Set an end time upfront.

Tell everyone when you plan to end the meeting right at the start. There’s nothing worse than sitting there wondering “when’s this going to end”.

It also forces people to have their say quickly before time runs out

2) Ditch the conference room… think outside the square.

Conference rooms are generally grey, stark and stuffy… no wonder people get bored and doze off.

Change the meeting environment regularly so people stay sharp. A local café with a lot of buzz can get the creative juices flowing or outside under a tree in the fresh air.

Maybe take your team to different parts of the business that they’re not familiar with and open the meeting by explaining how that area fits in.

It’s all about breaking the meeting routine.

3) Remove tables and other barriers from the room.

I recently visited Google’s head office in Sydney where they have the table and chairs in the “Downunder” meeting room attached to ceiling. It certainly got you thinking.

Maybe that’s going a bit far but think about getting rid of the table and putting all the chairs in a circle.

It may feel uncomfortable at first to people who are used to “hiding” behind a table. Yet it’s far more conducive to teamwork and engagement.

4) Arrange for other people to present a part of the meeting.

Meetings shouldn’t be one-way communication. People get lazy if they know they don’t have to contribute. They just sit there and look interested but nothing sinks in.

Give them responsibilities or assignments, ample time to prepare, and be very positive about their contributions.

They stay sharp if they know they have to contribute.

5) Turn off all electronic distraction.

Focus is the key to short, productive meetings!

Get them to turn off all mobiles, pagers, laptops and ipads… they can live without them for a little while. But make set a specific time for the IT blackout so they don’t stress too much.

6) If energy wanes, have everyone switch seats.

Do it at least once per meeting. Then people will have to sit by different peers, see the room and the issues from a different point of view, and get their blood moving.

7) At the beginning of the meeting, have each person share something from work that’s gone really well recently.

It can be as simple as clearing up an issue with filing documents to as big as getting a major proposal out ahead of deadline.

It makes people feel good right from the very start if they can highlight their accomplishments. Often it’s only the mistakes which attract attention.

It also promotes a positive feeling which is more likely to lead to positive interaction.

8) At the end of the meeting, draw up an action list.

Every meeting must accomplish something and attendees must leave thinking “well that was worthwhile”. An action list means the meeting has built a momentum of its own which is going to achieve something. They must accomplish their action by a set date, and report back on their progress at the next meeting.

9) Power down PowerPoint.

It numbs the brain and puts the focus on a screen rather than on the people in the room. You want interaction!

Put your ideas on huge sheets of paper and give everyone a different colored marker. As the meeting progresses, each person is responsible for editing and adding to the working document.