As a facilitator for team away days, I’ve noticed teams often want help to get the balance right in their team meetings between sharing useful information… and having to listen to colleagues drone on. Or between having a professional, structured agenda… and being plain bored.
An effective way to enhance the flow of team meetings and create the right atmosphere for engagement is to allow some space for a bit of fun. Fun is a seriously underestimated tool for productivity and team building. And while no one likes ‘organised fun’, there are some quick and easy things you can do to create a nice, relaxed, open feel to your team meetings. Building a trusting, informal team environment promotes better information-sharing and also makes it easier to ‘move someone on’ if they are talking too much! Here are a few ideas:
- Play music while waiting for team members to arrive for your team meeting. This works online or in person. Team members can each contribute a favourite tune in advance, making a team playlist, and the person who chose the tune that’s playing can explain why they love it.
- Have a short icebreaker at the start of your meetings. This could be asking a lighthearted question to set a positive tone e.g. ‘what made you smile in the last week?’, ‘what are you looking forward to this month?’ or even a ‘would you rather…’ question.
- Have the odd short, online activity during your team meetings. You could have a themed photograph competition or race to solve a ‘dingbat’ puzzle for example.
- Introduce a slot in your agenda for sharing and celebrating your individual and team successes. This is a great way to boost morale and confidence and create a ‘feel good’ atmosphere within the team.
- Use a Slido poll during the meeting to gather feedback on agenda items under discussion. This is a quicker, more fun way to test opinions than ‘going round the table’, and mixing things up by using different media raises energy levels.
If it’s been a while since your team has had a refresh on the structure of your team meetings or any other ways of working, having an away day is a great way to reset energies and build team spirit. Take a look at my team building page or get in touch to discuss a bespoke event for your team.