Are your business meetings boring and dry? As per a recent survey conducted by National Statistics Council, near about 37% of total time of an employee is invested in attending business meetings, and 47% of employees consider attending those meetings as a wastage of time. There are several ways to improve meetings and making it a much more enjoyable experience for everyone while keeping it on a professional level. In fact, if you can make a meeting more interesting you will be able to hold the attention of all of the attendees.
How exactly can this be accomplished?
Use a Projector
If you can provide a visual aid to your audience during a presentation you can give them something to focus on while you talk. Nobody wants to stare at a person while they are giving a long speech, it can make things uncomfortable. However, if your audience can look up at a projected image it will make it much easier to grasp their attention. In a meeting, attendees take notes of what’s discussed there. Even if the presenter’s speech is unclear or fast, the projector helps the attendees to note the matter conveniently.
Be Prepared
If you are properly prepared for the meeting it will make things run both quickly and smoothly. You will be able to transition from one piece of information to the next, which will make you sound a lot more interesting than if you were to keep stumbling over the same topic. Set the goal of your meeting rightly. Give refreshment breaks in between the meetings so that the attendees won’t get exhausted. It’s better to cancel the meeting if you think you’re not prepared for it.
Speak Clearly
If the attendees cannot hear you, how can they be expected to understand or care about what you are saying? One of the most significant ways to improve business meetings is to speak your mind in an easy to understand words. If your attendees fail to take in your words, it would be rude for them to ask you to speak up in the middle of a presentation, so normally people will just sit there and act like they can understand you. Instead, make sure that you project your voice and speak clearly.
Ask for Input
If you make it a regular habit of asking for input from other people that are not involved with your presentation you can make sure that they pay attention and truly gasp what you are saying. They will want to be ready in case they are asked a question, which will make it so that they mentally prepare themselves for such a scenario.
This also gives your audience a chance to be involved. If you think about it, wouldn’t it be more fun to go on a roller-coaster than it is to watch somebody on television do it? The same principal applies in this situation.
Praise in Public, Criticize in Private
While this may only pertain to certain individuals, some people have a problem with criticizing others during a presentation. When a person gets nervous it is usually easiest to make somebody else look bad so that you can look better by comparison. This is the wrong way to go about giving your presentation.
Instead of putting people down and telling them what they did wrong in front of everyone, give them praise and try to focus on the positive things that they did. Just like when you talked to your parents when you were little, meetings are more enjoyable when they focus on the positive things that people do.
This doesn’t mean that you cannot criticize people at all though. Instead, wait until you can take them aside away from everyone else to talk to them about the issue at hand. This will help correct it without publicly embarrassing them.
The Bottom Line
Long meetings overloaded with information and speeches add to its boredom. On the contrary, short meetings with breaks at regular intervals make the meeting engaging. As such, 03 World has set up a technology known as Roombot in the meeting room. It warns the participants of the meeting about its wrapping up in the final minutes. In this way, the app prevents the meeting from extending itself.
You can introduce any kind of variety to the meetings to spruce it up. Make sure that the varieties are going to engage your people more and won’t make them feel reluctant to participate in the meeting. Feel free to seek suggestions from your employees regarding improving the business meetings. Be flexible enough to consider their suggestions.
