The following is an excerpt from Michael Kerr’s latest book, The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank.
Meetings That Inspire, Meetings That Rock
No discussion of effective, inspiring and fun communication in the workplace is complete until we’ve broached the phenomenon known universally as “death by meeting.” (“Death by PowerPoint” being a popular subset of the whole death by meeting experience.)
Despite the fact that it seems like half the Amazonian rain forest has contributed to the mountains of articles and books offering ideas on how to make meetings more effective and fun, meetings 
continue to be a time-sucking, soul-zapping, and productivity-draining source of stress for too many people.
Many organizations likely need to go on a meeting diet or at least trim the length of their meetings, especially considering the results of a U.K. study that found the average office worker spends around 16 hours a week in meetings, and that about a quarter of that time is wasted. As one of my clients once bemoaned, “I have so many meetings to attend I don’t have time to go to some of my other meetings.”
It’s not just an issue though of quantity; the larger issue is one of quantity, after all, meetings don’t kill people. People kills meetings. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Why not, as a starting point, set a very basic goal for all your meetings that people will leave the meeting feeling more inspired and better about things than when they arrived? Will you always achieve that goal? Maybe not, but setting such a goal will surely help you raise the meeting bar.
And yes, meetings absolutely should be fun. After all, what’s more fun than gathering with a group of colleagues who share the same aspirations for success? What’s more fun than finding out what people are working on and what milestones have been reached? What’s more fun than contributing ideas and energy towards a common cause and engaging in thoughtful conversations about the future?
If this all sounds foreign to you, then the place for you to start making your meetings more fun is to start by making your meetings more effective. Make meetings actually mean something. Make them worth coming to and worth talking about. After all, the number one reason people don’t enjoy meetings is they view them as a waste of time.
So start with the basics. Do your team leaders have the necessary skills to run an effective meeting? Do you always have an agenda? Do you start and end meetings on time? Do you invite only people who really need to be there? Do people understand the purpose of the meeting? Does everyone have the opportunity to be heard and to participate? Are people engaging in thoughtful and respectful debates and conversations? Do you have a clear call to action at the end of your meetings and do people understand who’s doing what by when? And finally, are you putting the humor advantage to work to help you achieve these goals?
For example, if you want people to read the agenda and do any pre-meeting work beforehand, then make it fun to do so! If you want people to show up on time, then create a fun ritual to open up the meeting. If you want people to follow the rules of the meetings road without beating them over the head with a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order, then assign a “meeting ref” to monitor the meeting with a playful touch. If you want people to avoid using jargon then create a drinking game during your meeting wherein everyone takes an exaggerated gulp of their coffee/tea/water whenever anyone uses an annoying acronym or buzzword term. Or let people know they have to sing a Celine Dion song if they arrive late to the meeting.
If you want to keep your meetings short, then do what some Google teams do: Record the length of your meetings and then try to beat your best time (of course you never want to sacrifice quality for the sake of brevity, but for team huddles or strictly information-sharing type meetings this could be helpful). Try what some companies do and remove the chairs–it’s amazing how quickly things will speed up and how the overall tone of the meeting changes. Or for something a little more wacky, try what the online photo sharing site Flickr does to keep its meeting short and sweet: Everyone must drink a 16 ounce glass of water beforehand with the understanding that the meeting ends whenever the first person needs to go…as in literally go.
In addition to using a bit humor to help you achieve your meeting goals, remember that your meetings both reflect your culture and help build your culture. If you want to be known as an 
inspiring, fun, awesome place to work, then your meetings sure as heck better be inspiring, fun and awesome as well!
By the same token, meetings are a natural place to have culture-building conversations and activities. Opening your meetings with a “values moment” will help reinforce your values. Doing a team huddle Monday mornings can help inspire people for the week and keep everyone informed of what’s headed their way. A Friday afternoon team huddle reviewing the highlights of the week can help everyone end the week on a high note. Honoring someone or making space in every meeting for a “shout out” section where team members can publicly recognize someone else’s efforts will help reinforce a culture of positive recognition. Fun team building activities or ice breakers can serve as trust-building exercises that help everyone to get to know each other at a more personal level. Leaving a chair empty or having a mannequin seated at a chair to represent the customer can remind people that you need to keep the customer in mind in everything you do. And holding a humor break during a longer meeting, wherein everyone shares the funniest thing that has happened to them since the last time you met reinforces the value you place in humanity and humor in the workplace.
And as many businesses understand, having truly effective meetings where you embrace the creative formula of “Ha + Ha = AHA,” as we’ll discover in the next chapter, really can help you laugh all the way to the bank.
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame Speaker, highly in-demand international keynote speaker, and the creator of the Culture Leadership Online Academy. Michael is also the author of 8 books, including: The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank; Hire, Inspire, and Fuel Their Fire; and The Jerk-Free Workplace: How You Can Take the Lead to Create a Happier, More Inspiring Workplace. www.MikeKerr.com
