Humor during meetings : Say YES !

The secret to better meetings : humor

The very first thing that clouds the human mind when we think about meetings is the boredom that comes along with it. Meetings are stressful and a waste of time; everybody might agree to that but it doesnt’ have to be about all the negative impressions and experiences. The cause of it can be traced back at least to the team, or the one leading the team. If one person or, better, everyone injects humor in meetings, then it shouldnt’ have to be too dragging or mind-boggling at all.

Humor during meetings spices up discussions and keeps everyone proactive. A fun meeting promotes positive vibes and camaraderie and encourages everyone to throw ideas more transparently. A study published in Novembers’ Journal of Applied Psychology, that examined behavioral patterns of humor during meetings, linked humor with the increase of productivity immediately or even two years later. Its abstract expressed that humor patterns trigger positive socioemotional communication, procedural structure and new solutions. At the team level, humor patterns related to a positive team performance.

In the past, most companies cut unnecessary conversations that come alongside fun meeting activities. Nowadays they resort to do the very opposite of that. Instead of strategizing onerous brainstorming sessions, they add fun activities to kill boredom. Companies nowadays think out of the box to keep employees motivated and expect that they would do the same in return.

For instance, one motivating factor to keep positive meeting vibes is to organize meetings outside the office. Companies rent meeting rooms at Bird Office for example – a website dedicated to online room reservations for any types of mobile meetings like seminars, trainings or mancom plannings.

Why moving to another place for a meeting is a nice idea :

? Meeting rooms have more than enough space for fun activities.
? Meeting rooms come with complete equipments, you just have to decide which amenities you want to include in your meetings.
? Meeting rooms are easily accessible. At Bird Office to give you an example, we have available meeting rooms in London, Paris, Belgium and any city across Europe.
? You can pre-order food or set up luncheons as you reserve meetings rooms at a hotel.
? Rooms are available at a very reasonable price, so if you want to change the habits, it worth it !

Want to add humor to your meeting space?

You dont’ have to go all Ellen Degeneres to stir discussions in a fun way. You just have to simply be yourself – everybody has a funny side anyway. A joke over a joke is a good thing but humor during meetings can be predefined in a certain way to link them to the topics. Integrating humor into your meeting agenda helps getting more ingenious ideas.

Try some tips that you can reuse or improvise:

Open the meeting with a funny story or video

Always start a meeting with an interesting prelude. The opening phase of the meeting help understanding the amount of energy that your team needs to stay awake during the meeting. If you start direct to the point, the meeting could end up too lenient, and what happens next ? Your team members are constantly checking their twitter or facebook among others.

Set up a contest about the topic

In seminars and other conferences, the most effective way to drive the meeting is to organize fun activities in a form of small competitions. This does not only enliven the competitiveness of your staff but also saves your team from a possible loss of interest. A contest brings out the creativity and wit of team members and it eventually leads them to share more constructive ideas. Furthermore, fun activities give you more time to prepare for the next discussion! In the end your company, as a whole, can always benefit from fun activities as they are the core section of soft skills.

Get to know the teammates more

According to Harvard Business Review, positive teams are more productive. What better way to instill positivism than making meetings more interesting through knowing our colleagues more personally? These days, companies understand that professionalism does not end in direct-to-the-point meetings. People grow sick and tired of onerous routines that they do everyday. Make sure that you start your meeting as gentle demeanor as possible, then set up know-who activities like writing each name on a piece of paper and then letting someone describe that person. It will be fun!

Engage your teams in creative activities

Paints and colored pencils are what defined our elementary years. Why not relive those moments and bring out the creativity of your teammates? Humor during meetings do not point to jokes and puns alone, it generally means making sure the meeting serves a purpose in an enjoyable way! By letting your teammates draw on a piece of cardboard, you will secretly find out who can do better and has a more creative mind. This does not only apply to marketing people but surely to any struggling teams because at every end of the activity, you will always identify the lessons that you have learned from it.