Fun in the Boardroom - [website] Published: 20th of Jul 2011 by: Smart Alec
Let’s face it, meetings and presentations at work can be excruciatingly boring and unproductive, owing to either sheer monotony, a lack of involvement, unfamiliarity between the attendees, or a combination of the above.
This does no one any good, and makes your goal of having (or attending) a productive meeting much harder to attain.
So how does one liven up meetings, get the audience or group to actively participate and also pay attention for longer than five minutes?
Well the answer’s actually quite simple, all you need to do is break the ice properly and the rest will fall into place.
One of the most important factors when holding a meeting is the comfort level of those attending. If you put a group of people together who don’t really know each other and don’t give them a chance to do so, chances are the group will be subdued and less inclined to participate.
There are many ways to break the ice between group members, but one of the best, and most fun ways of breaking the ice is through playing games.
One game, especially good at making attendees feel more comfortable with each other, is called Story of My Life, and involves each participant pretending that he/she is writing an autobiography. In order to do this they must each answer various questions, like place of birth, their first job, some childhood stories and a short description of their family. By playing this game the participants are encouraged to be open and to communicate – vital attributes for jobs in customer service etc.
Another useful game is The Ideal Employee. In this game the participants aim to develop a list of the traits that make up the ideal employee, but before a trait can be added to the list it must be agreed upon by everyone in the group, and must be justified by the person making the contribution. This is an ideal game for most meetings and presentations because it can be adapted to any job or position, and benefits the attendees by identifying traits they may need to work on.
But playing games at meetings and presentations does not have to be restricted to the very beginning – they can be played at any time it becomes necessary, like when you see the audience is more interested in the squirrel in the tree outside rather than your presentation – and can be a great way to refresh the group and reclaim their attention.
A great game for those longer, more boring parts of the meeting is Line Up, in which you have the participants line up in order of some random fact about themselves, for example birth month or height. This game gets the participants moving and wakes them up, while also helping them get to know a bit more about the other group members.
There is no reason that meetings need to be boring, and livening them up benefits everyone involved, encourages participation and retains their attention throughout your presentation. If you hold meetings that you can see bore the group, try playing a game next time and see what kind of effect it has.
