Organising an engaging meeting can be extremely difficult. Even when you’re trying your best, your employees might seem disinterested and constantly check their phones. But if you find ways to make your employees feel more included, you might be able to make your meetings more productive and meaningful. Giving people space to talk and sharing your agenda in advance could allow your employees to prepare for the meeting and share their ideas in a welcoming environment. In the end, you might get a new perspective and make your employees feel heard and valued. Here’s how to promote engagement in your company meetings.
Make The Meeting Fun
Company meetings can often be rather dull. Try to make the meetings fun to ensure that your employees pay attention. First of all, you could get started with an icebreaker. But how can you do that in a company setting? You could try to engage in small talk or come up with a quick trivia game. However, you could also utilise tools to improve the overall engagement, such as live word cloud from Vevox. That might help you to find out how your employees feel about the topic or understand what’s important to them. Bringing fun into the meeting could help you to catch the attention of your employees and make them feel more engaged.
Share Your Agenda Beforehand
Letting your employees know what the meeting is going to be about could allow them to prepare what they could say and how they could contribute. You should also make sure that you communicate the structure clearly. After all, meetings lacking structure and organisation could stress your employees. That might make them less productive throughout the day and nervous about the upcoming meeting. Ensure you stay on time throughout the meeting and stick to the agenda. You might be able to make the meeting more organised and keep your employees engaged because they know what to expect. That way, it might be easier for them to pay attention and follow what you’re talking about.
Give Others Space To Talk
The meeting should be where your employees feel safe and comfortable – they should feel confident to speak up without worrying about judgement from others. At the same time, you need to acknowledge that all your employees might have different personalities. While some people might be extroverted and opinionated, others might be introverted and prefer to observe silently. And if you give the extroverts too much time to talk, you might easily overlook the introverts. They might be more inclined to listen to others, but that gives them an excellent opportunity to analyse what they hear and develop unique ideas and solutions. However, you shouldn’t force anyone to talk if they have nothing to add to the conversation. When you speak, try to leave a short pause after your sentences, That might allow others to jump in with any questions or remarks they might have. Giving people an opportunity to express their opinions could help you to gain a fresh perspective and encourage others to engage in the meeting more.
