Act1 - How to Make Interesting Meetings

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Act1 - How to Make Interesting Meetings

Annual Theme - pick a theme and stick to it!

The wheel of WOW!!!! (aka dart boards)
White boards
3 x 5 cards
Tables and charts
Compare previous years’ programs - rotate topics every 2 or more years (we forget by then)
What has the Pope dedicated the upcoming year to?
What are the themes of upcoming Vatican, Diocesan, NCCW confabs?

Monthly meetings - wrap the topics under the theme

Set the dates and times and locations
Incorporate the Liturgical season
Leave room for Deanery events that may overlap
Rotate topics every 2 or more years (we forget by then)

Additional Programs - mix and match with the theme

Fundraisers and Fun raisers
Auctions - Chinese
Mother - Son events
Father - Daughter events
Auctions - Silent
Spiritual Retreats homegrown or invited programs
ODCCW Leadership CAFÉ
Raffles - 50:50 and Share the Wealth

Events

Be flexible
Include annual events like CDAC, Deanery meetings, ODCCW Convention
Incorporate other parish ministry events like the parish carnival, anniversary
Make room for annual parliamentary activities
Be flexible

Google solves every dilemma

Act 2 - How to Make Your Meetings Interesting

The Many Dimensions of Your Meeting

Space and Time (aka “The Space Time Continuum”)

The three dimensions of space and time are momentum, angular momentum, and the three dimensional momentum of gravity.

1stdimension of time is linear motion (think of light speed)

2nddimension of time is rotational motion (think of the earth spinning)

3rddimension of time is the three dimensional motion of gravitational expansion. These three separate time flows are equivalent at any point in space but they diverge from one another with changes in momentum. Each kind of time is measured by a different kind of clock. The rates of these different clocks change in different ways with changes in momentum.

Filling Your Space Time Continuum with Stuff to Interest the Senses

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Visual

Auditory

Olfactory

Taste

Tactile

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Enriching Your Space Time Continuum with Sanctified Moments

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Christ Light

Christ Centered

Christ Inspired

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Go somewhere different
Rotate the chair
Invite a stranger
Have a ‘thought board’
Story time
Any Ideas?
Praise be
Spring some surprises

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Simply Stand Up
Share Your Growth
Focus on Focus
Stick to Short
Host Hang-outs
Friday Beer and Learns
Be More Spontaneous
Blend in Bonding
Experiment with Schedules
Brainstorm with Structure - and Sweets
Why Meet at All?

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Efficient – So stuff gets done!
Positive and fun – So people enjoy themselves and look forward to the next meeting.
Participative – So everyone participates equally, instead of just zoning out or faking agreement.
Open – So people say what they really think.
Creative – So the thinking goes beyond the usual and into new territory.

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

1: Open the meeting with a positive round

2: Interrupt the meeting regularly

3: Lose the table

4: Get the body in there

5: Use strategically placed silence

1. Set an example from the start

2. Make a connection with everyone in the room

3. Remind everyone of your greater mission

4. Provide action steps

5. Acknowledge successes

6. Start where you began

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Keep It Moving
Social Time
Bread Winner
Ideas To Go
Act It Out
Change Places
Give It A Chance!
Standup Meeting
Hourglass
Give Me a Break!
Call Your Office
Balloon Toss
Games
Skip It
Celebrate Success
Cartoon Time
On Your Best Behavior
I Don't Think So!
The Funniest Thing
Exercise Break
Pet pictures
Facilitate This!
Game Breaks
Outside the Box
Little Lower Please
Hat

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

1. Pretend you’ve already failed.

2. Keep it Novel.

3. Pause.

4. Don't squander youth.

5. Say it in 5 words.

6. Think like a director.

7. Get them laughing.

8. Bring something to the table or don't come at all.

9. Be like a talk show host.

10. Use meetings to beget meetings.

Bonus tip: Boy Meets World.

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

1. Get started well

2. Chuck away the chairs and get people moving

3. Ensure that everyone is contributing and sharing their views

Brief encounters
Rounds
Surveys
Where do you stand?
Speed dating
Concentric circles
World Café

4. Enable people to bring their emotions to the meeting

5. Display people’s thinking

Sticker voting

6. Include some learning

Study tables

7. Keep it positive

8. Build consensus

Snowballing
Deciding line
Give me 21

9. Vary the agenda and the lead

10. Review your meetings

BONUS Invest in a large clock

Page 1 of 16

Nanette Parratto-WagnerInteresting MeetingsJuly 18 - 19, 2015

Resources

1: Open the meeting with a positive round

Psychological experiments have shown that the way a meeting starts, sets the tone for the whole meeting. Start the meeting with complaints, problems and mutual blame, and that’s what you’ll get.But if you start out with something positive, the rest of the meeting is more likely to be more fun. The best way to start a meeting positively, is to ask each participant to briefly (= less than 30 seconds) share something positive. Here are some ideas:

Name one thing you’ve accomplished since the last meeting that you’ve been proud of?
Name a person who has helped you since the last meeting.
Mention one thing you’re looking forward to in the coming week/month?
What’s the funniest thing someone has told you in the last week?
Mention something interesting you’ve learned since the last meeting.

This sets a much better tone for the rest of the meeting – and it’s also a lot more fun than opening with an endless litany of complaints and problems.

2: Interrupt the meeting regularly

I know you want to make the most of your meeting time – and that makes it tempting to think that “MAN, we have a long agenda today – let’s skip the breaks and get more done.” Only thing is, it doesn’t work that way. You need to interrupt the flow of the meeting regularly. This keeps people’s minds focused and it makes the whole thing more fun and relaxed. Here’s how.First of all: A five-minute break every hour is not an option, it’s mandatory! You can’t have a productive meeting if half the people present are seriously in need of a restroom visit.Secondly: Every half hour, do a quick two-minute creative break of some kind. You can: Get people to stand up and stretch, have a quick rock-paper-scissor tournament, ask everyone to tell their neighbor a riddle or a joke, whatever. Make it something fun and light-hearted that activates people in some way.

So if you have a two-hour meeting starting at 1PM, include these breaks:
1 PM: Meeting starts
1:30 PM: Two-minute creative break
2 PM: Five minute break
2:30 PM: Two-minute creative break
3 PM: Meeting ends

Bring a kitchen timer and set it to 30 minutes, to make sure you remember the creative breaks.

3: Lose the table

What purpose do tables really serve at a meeting, except to give you a place to put down your coffee cup and to keep your head from hitting the floor when you fall asleep?

There are many advantages to table-less meetings:

People are more free to move around, instead of being locked into one sitting position.
Communication flows better, because you can see the entire person, not just from the chest up.
You increase participation, because people can’t simply slump down and hide throughout the meeting.
You can get people closer together. If you seat 20 people around a table, the distance from one end to the other is going to be huge.
Seating people in a circle signals that everyone is equal. It’s democratic, unlike the normal meeting table, where the boss sits at the head of the table.

So instead of meeting around a table, simply put the required number of chairs in a circle with nothing in the middle. If you’re going to be looking at a lot of plans or papers, hang them on the wall and arrange the chairs in a semi-circle in front of them.

4: Get the body in there

Your body is not good at sitting still for extended periods of time. The longer you sit still, the more stiff and tired the body gets. And when the body is tired and stiff, so is the mind.

A very simple thing to do is to get people to stand up and stretch. It only takes a minute to:

Get everyone to stand up.
Bounce on your feet for 10 seconds, just to get the blood flowing.
Stretch your arms up towards the ceiling – as high as you can.
Keep your arms up and lean to the right. Hold for 10 seconds.
Lean to the left, hold.
Lean back, hold.
Lean forward, touch your toes.
Sit back down.

You can do it at the beginning of the meeting, after every break or whenever you sense that people are zoning out and losing focus. Try this one day in a meeting, and you will discover that once you’ve stretched your body, your mind will feel fresher, more flexible and more creative.

5: Use strategically placed silence

This is probably the one thing you find in no meetings. I mean – the purpose of meetings is to talk, right. Silence kinda defeats that purpose, doesn’t it?

No. The purpose of meetings is not to talk – the purpose of meetings is to arrive at ideas, solutions, plans and decisions in such a way that:

The ideas are so good that they can be carried out.
The process that leads to the ideas is so good that people want to carry the ideas out.

And in this respect, silence can be a great tool. Because while some people can think while they’re talking – most can’t.A well-placed two-minute silent break is a great chance for people to stop and think. To figure out what the deeper issues are. To see the solution that is not immediately obvious. To find out how they feel about the issues being discussed.

Here are some ways to use it:

When discussing an issue, focus first on presenting the facts without discussing solutions. Have two minutes of silence, then discuss solutions.
If discussions become heated, and it seems like no progress is made, two minutes of silence can be a great way to cool the whole thing down.
When a decision has been made, give people two minutes of silence to think about how they feel about this decision.

The way you do it is that at the appropriate time, you announce a two-minute silence, and you keep track of time and let people know when the two minutes have passed. And let me warn you right away: It feels very strange the first few times. It’s funny that silence should be so threatening, but because most meetings are all about the talking, and we’ve come to think that silence is awkward. That if no one’s talking, something is wrong. After you’ve done it a few times, it becomes a lot easier, and it can even be very pleasant to take a break from all the talking!

26 Ways to Make Meetings More Fun (…and productive)

by Charlie Hawkins, MBA

Looking for ways to bring new life and energy to your meetings? Turn "dull and dreaded" to "energizing and effective" with these tips.
1. Keep It Moving
Change some aspect of your meeting about every twenty minutes: presentation style, insert Q&A, use a panel discussion, small group breakouts, videos, mini-breaks, team presentations, exercises, games, quizzes, feedback, voting, etc.
2. Social Time
Start ten minutes earlier than usual (e.g., 8:50 instead of 9:00 am).
Design the first ten minutes as a social mixer.
3. Bread Winner
Bring different kinds of breakfast breads to morning meetings; rotate "catering" responsibilities to each member of the group with the challenge to bring a new and different kind of bread. Each month the group votes on the best "bread winner" of the month.
4. Ideas To Go
Line the walls of the room with different problems for group members to solve, posed as "How can we…" statements. (e.g., How can we improve service in XYZ area?)
Give group members a "stickies" notepad, and invite them to roam the room, write ideas on their pads, and stick them on the problem to which they apply.
5. Act It Out
After information is delivered (training, new policies, etc.), break the meeting into groups of 5 to 8 people and challenge each small group to design a skit, song, rap, dance or other ways to recap part of the "learnings" from the session.
6. Change Places
Have every group member place their business card into a bowl or container. Then, everyone draws a card other than their own. When generating or responding to ideas, participants assume the persona of the person on their card and respond from their (assumed) point of view. This is a great way to "level the playing field" in the meeting.
7. Give It A Chance!
Have soft kids' toys in the room (foam balls, squish toys, etc.)
Any time someone crushes another person's idea (e.g., "that won't work…we tried that before…it'll cost too much…" etc.), group members are invited to pick up the near toy and bombard the offender, shouting "Give It A Chance!"
8. Standup Meeting
Remove all the chairs in the meeting room, and hold the meeting standing up. It will make the meeting shorter.
9. Hourglass
Get a two or three minute egg timer (miniature hourglass) or electronic alarm clock and use it to time discussions. Designate a timekeeper to monitor.
When the agreed-upon time is up, the timekeeper shouts out "Time!" which is the signal to move on. Imposed time constraints often boost creative output.
10. Give Me a Break!
Set a ground rule that any group member can call a break during the meeting for any reason (potty break, food, stretch, etc.)
Set an alarm clock for ten minutes (15 or whatever), and resume the meeting immediately when the alarm sounds. Re-start the meeting with a summary of where you left off.
11. Call Your Office
Pose a challenge to group members.
During a break, group members call their office and talk to anyone they think can give them a new insight on the challenge. Report back to the group.
12. Balloon Toss
Supplies: toy balloons, small note pads and pens or pencils.
Have group members write ideas to a given challenge on a piece of paper (one per sheet), fold the paper and put it inside a balloon. Blow up balloons, and tie them.
When all are done, everyone tosses the balloons for 15-30 seconds, and captures a balloon. Each person takes the new idea they have received, and builds on it. Report to the group.
13. Games
Start each meeting with a game or brain teaser to get the creative juices flowing.
Sources: Games Magazine; The Great Book of Business Games, E. Scannell & J. Newstrom; First Aid for Meetings, C. Hawkins; daily newspaper.
14. Skip It
Instead of having a meeting, make a conscious decision to "skip it." Ask the people who would normally attend to do something to develop their creative awareness …take a walk, listen to music, draw, go to an art museum, play with a child or play skip-the-rope. Also ask them to capture any ideas which come up while they are playing, and e-mail them to the meeting leader.
15. Celebrate Success
When the group has something to celebrate (open new account, finish project on/ahead of time, promotions, etc.) celebrate it in the meeting with sparkling water served in champagne glasses. If appropriate, use champagne!
16. Cartoon Time
Ask group members to search for and bring a favorite cartoon to the meeting, and post them for all to see. To make it even more challenging, make it any other cartoon except Dilbert™.
17. On Your Best Behavior
Designate a portion of each meeting for "meeting skills training." Introduce a new skill at each meeting, such as gate-keeping, building, summarizing, etc. (See Make Meetings Matter or other resources).
After the skill is introduced, have group members practice it in small groups of 5 to 8 people. Each person try to use the skill at least once during a discussion.
18. I Don't Think So!
Ask the group to identify the most common types of disruptive behaviors in meetings (interrupters, boors, manipulators, side conversations, nay-sayers, etc.)
Anytime someone exhibits one of the disruptive behaviors, any group member (or the whole group) can shout out "I Don't Think So!" to lightly remind the "offender."
19. The Funniest Thing
Ask group members to write down the funniest thing that happened to them or in their department since the last meeting. Put the responses in a bowl. Periodically during the meeting, draw them out and invite the group to guess who wrote each story. The "authors" can embellish if time allows.
Variation: skip the writing and just share the stories at the beginning of the meeting or during.
20. Exercise Break
Rotate responsibility for group members to lead the group in some kind of physical exercise to start the meeting or use during breaks. If desired, award prizes for the best exercises of the week/month. Bring a boom box with upbeat music to accompany.
21. Pet pictures
Ask everyone to bring in pictures of their pet(s) or of a friend's pet if they don't have one. Alternative: draw a picture of their pet.
Go around and share stories about the pets. This can be done before or during meetings, or during breaks. Build: ask each person what qualities of their pet they possess.
22. Facilitate This!
Take turns being the meeting facilitator. Responsibility: keep the meeting on track.
Each facilitator is challenged to introduce a new ground rule, game, exercise or brain teaser to make the meeting more fun.
At the end of the meeting, the group votes whether to incorporate the new "tool" regularly or occasionally.
23. Game Breaks
During breaks, stage games or competitions that challenge people mentally or physically. If energy is lagging, use games that involve light physical activity.
24. Outside the Box
During nice weather, hold all or part of the meeting outside. Take advantage of the environment by changing the dress code, refreshments, activities, etc.
There's nothing quite like a poolside location for grinding through a budget meeting, or a meeting under the shade tree for coming up with new ideas.
25. A Little Lower Please
Hire a professional masseuse to give five-minute back and neck rubs to participants during the meeting. Time the massages so that everyone receives the relaxing treat. For example, ten participants x six minutes each = one hour.
In addition to virtually guaranteeing attendance, this can be used to start and end on time. Anyone late misses their massage.
26. Hat
Invite group members to wear a creative hat to the next meeting…or bring a box of fun hats for members to choose. During the meeting, have a "hat parade" while designated judges choose the best (most creative, absurd, etc.) hat.
Challenge members to think (generate ideas, etc.) from the perspective of the person represented by the hat. This can also be directly linked to Edward deBono's "Six Thinking Hats."