How to add Humor and Fun to Your Office Meetings

Office meetings are necessary, but unfortunately, they tend to become boring. They either have long-winded monologues or heated arguments. In the process, employees begin to get bored. Most of them dread office meetings. The end result is that office meetings do not produce the desired results.

The solution is simple. Making office meetings enjoyable will make employees actively and enthusiastically participate in meetings. There are different ways in which it can be done. We look at some ways by which you can add humor and fun to your office meetings.

Fun and humor in office meetings

If you are in charge of conducting meetings in your office, then you have a big challenge. You must ensure the meetings go on smoothly and produce the desired results. At the same time, you must ensure everyone actively participates in the meeting and shows interest. The way to do this is to make the office meeting enjoyable.

Before looking at how to make meetings interesting, let’s look at the why. Why is injecting humor into meetings essential?

• It helps you conduct meetings smoothly, with everyone actively participating. You can get better results from the meetings.
• Promoting laughter in the workplace by making meetings fun is a good way to boost morale. When you encourage fun at the workplace, it creates a positive work environment. Employees are happier, and this has a positive effect on productivity.
• You will see 100% attendance in meetings because participants are actually enjoying meetings. As a result, meetings become more productive.
• Many times meetings tend to be tense. It can raise stress levels. When you inject an element of fun into meetings, the tension levels are lowered.
• When office meetings become enjoyable, employees strive to do better. It helps them enhance their creative abilities, which can lead to better brainstorming at meetings.

Let’s now look at how to make office meetings fun-filled and enjoyable:

1) Use ice breakers

An icebreaker is a fun activity or a game that helps to set the mood for a meeting. When people assemble for a meeting, they tend to be serious, and some may even be tense. You can make them feel relaxed with fun meeting icebreakers. For example, you start the activity by saying a word. The next person has to add another word, so a sentence can be added. 

In this way, the activity continues, with everyone trying to make meaningful sentences. The result would be wacky and would make people laugh. A scavenger hunt is another great ice breaker that makes participants move around and look for things. As the name suggests, it breaks the ice and creates a conducive environment for the meeting.  

2) Plan breakfast meetings

Start the day with a meeting. The benefit is that people are fresh and raring to go. To make them more enthusiastic, plan a breakfast meeting. Serve a delicious breakfast before the meeting. Or organize a working breakfast where people eat while going ahead with the meeting agenda.

Encourage employees to come out with breakfast ideas for office meeting. Implement their ideas so they feel more enthusiastic about office meetings. Organizing breakfast and snacks for office meetings is a simple and effective way to make meetings enjoyable. Also, plan the meetings with a list of topics to discuss in office meetings. A planned meeting with a clear agenda produces better results. 

3) Play games during meetings

You can use icebreakers at the start of a meeting. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have other games. You can make meetings enjoyable by including games. These games can be played any time during the meeting and can be for a short duration. Such games make meetings interesting and help to lighten the mood.

You can ask employees to suggest games to play at office meeting. From board games to personality tests, there are various games you can try out. The idea behind playing games is to create an atmosphere of fun. It puts people in a better mood, so they can participate actively in the meeting.

4) Encourage participants to have fun

As the person in charge of meetings, you are responsible for ensuring the meetings succeed. It can happen only if everyone contributes. The best way to do this is by encouraging people to have fun. Let the participants know you welcome humor in the meetings.

Encourage them to crack jokes and share funny anecdotes that make the meeting fun-filled. But do ensure the humor does not cross limits. Also, humor should not distract people from the purpose of the meeting. 

5) Make presentations humorous and interesting

Meetings include presentations where participants present their views, ideas, and opinions. Presentations can become dry and boring. Participants can start to lose interest in the meeting. You can solve this problem through humorous presentation techniques. Whether you are presenting or anyone else, ensure that presentations are interesting.

Adding an element of humor is a great way to make presentations interesting. Starting with a joke is a good way to make people show more interest in your presentation. You can include interesting anecdotes and even add GIFs or memes in your presentation. Of course, you must ensure they are relevant to the topic. Adding humor creates interest in your presentation and ensures people listen to you. 

6) Include different activities

Apart from games, there are many other activities to do in meetings. Such office meeting activities will create more interest in meetings. At the same time, you can use these activities to encourage people to be creative and come out with innovative solutions to problems.

Activities can include team building activities. Such activities help members of teams to bond well and understand each other better. It helps your employees to know each other better. It helps to foster trust and creates a spirit of camaraderie. 

Try out the different ways listed above to make your office meetings fun-filled. Bringing an element of humor to the workplace has positive benefits. You can also get help from our speakers, such as Dr. Adam Kay, Chris Cox, and Jamie MacDonald, for your company's work environment. Apart from making your meetings more result-oriented, it helps in improving the work environment.