How to Run a Team Building Meeting—That’s Actually Fun
Below are a couple of quick things that you can do to add fun team building events to any meeting. Add Fun Team Building Events to Any Meeting.
Ask your team how they would describe most meetings around the office, and most likely (even if you are a really good leaders) you will still hear words like…
LONG and
BORING…
It’s not your fault. We live in such a busy world that we often have to try to fit a bunch of information into a short period of time (or even worse, a long period of time). As a result, we begin to fall into what folks in the industry call “data dumping.” Below are a couple of quick things that you can do to add fun team building events to any meeting.
Add Fun Team Building Events to Any Meeting
Cut Down on the Content
A little content covered really well is much, much better than a lot of content that everyone forgets by the end of the day. I know time is short, but if you cover a little content in an energetic and fun way, you will create building-blocks with your team so that in future meetings, you can build on the past successes. If you cover a bunch of stuff, and your team only retains a small percentage of it, you will be frustrated as the retention drops over time.
Give the Team Free Time
If your team is booked for a convention or annual meeting, and they start at 7:30 AM and end at 9:00 PM, they will absolutely hate it (no matter how beneficial the content and the meetings are). If you have a jam-packed schedule, it doesn’t matter how many “fun activities” that you add to the agenda, they will hate the meeting. Instead of having every meal with the entire group, give them a per diem and let them get outside of the hotel. If you are at a resort, make sure and give them some time to enjoy the pool or the beach.
Speed Up Your Speeches
I know this goes against conventional wisdom, but the old tip to “slow down when you are in front of a group” is something you should always disregard. When you speak faster, you are pushing energy into the room. Think about the way that presenters on infomercials speak. Are they slow and methodical covering tons of data, or do they speak quickly and with energy and enthusiasm? The do the latter, because the faster speech and energy captures attention and holds the attention of the audience for longer periods of time.
Insert Professional Team Facilitators
The bigger your group, the more difficult it is to deliver a high-energy, fun team building event. So, it is a good idea to bring in a professional facilitor if the outcome is important. Limit the team activity to a couple of hours at most, and the group will be able to stay enthused throughout the entire time period. You’ll also want to schedule the fun event late afternoon and at the very end of your meeting if possible.
If you schedule the team activity too early in the day, then anything that you do later in the day will seem pretty boring in comparison. If you schedule it too late, then the group will be tired and the energy of the event will suffer. Schedule the team activity as the last thing that you do, and your team will leave the event having the fun, high energy activity in the front of their minds. That warm feeling will transfer over to the entire meeting.
Do these things, and you will add fun and energy to any meeting!
