30 Internal Meeting Ideas to Consider

For any business, it’s crucial to pay attention to details and creativity. For that, lots of internal meetings happen to get the idea or to solve the issue for better work progress in the business.

Companies are doing more and more staff meetings to get everyone on the same page and to boost their contribution to business goals.

However, these meetings either happen on a daily basis or when the need arises.

With this, the company saves their time and gets everyone’s ideas, does brainstorm, and keeps workers in check.

However lots of times, employees or attendees get bored with the internal meeting. It can be long, draggy, and pointless if the person is not into it.

To make sure that your internal meetings are efficient but also fun and creative. Here are some best of the ideas that you can use for your next meeting.

Why Do You Need Internal Meetings? And How To Improve it?

Most of the companies have one or maybe more than that meeting in the morning. As for the employees, it’s often counted as an annoying and disruptive task.

According to National Statistics Councils, more than 37% of employees spent their time in the meeting.

And around 47% of employees consider that having too many meetings is one of the biggest ways to waste time as compared to email or social media.

The meeting is important for the business, it helps in sharing the information and forwarding it.

Also, meetings can help in resolving the conflicts, problems and review the performance.

This helps in taking better decisions and planning. Along with that, it makes better team bonding and inclusivity.

But meetings are usually considered dull events. It can be dreaded and waste time as well as money.

To make sure that your meetings are fun, energetic, and effective, here are some of the ideas that you can consider.

1. Add Fun Elements, Colors, And Activities

You can do fun activities with your attendees and employees. Add coloring to get the inner child out and have fun. This can help in getting better ideas and boost the creativity level of the employees.

Also, coloring can help in relaxing the mind and keep the internal meeting more productive.

For example, Plum organic added this idea for their cooperative events to the internal meeting as well.

They pick a certain day of their weeks, mostly on Thursday to conduct such meetings.

Here they focus on a creative brainstorming session. Their staff spends time coloring, talking, and decompresses before the weekends.

With this idea, Plum organic is getting a positive response along with better and successful product development efforts.

This also promotes stimulating the employee’s mind and helps in getting ideas out of the box.

2. Set The Odd Times

There are lots of cases when attendees forget about the timing. To make sure you are getting the full attendance, schedule the meeting at odd times.

For example, if you usually call for a meeting at 9 am, start with 8: 46 am. The unusual timing helps in remembering the time

Also, the common association of meeting that the brain does is boring or predictable. When time is altered to something offbeat instead of regular, it can help in getting rid of the dullness factor.

Not just make sure everyone is present for the meeting on dot. But don’t wait for seniors or anyone if they are not on time.

3. Add Military Tactics

Well, it’s not that common to get examples where companies are using military tactics. Also getting the benefits from it.

But Buddytruk followed the new way to keep their internal meeting interesting for everyone. They used one of the highly effective military tactics where they track the time and productivity

Here those who fail to end their speaking before the scheduled time, have to do the 50 push-ups at least.

Adding the physical challenge helped in keeping the idea fun as well as boost their bonding as a team.

4. Standing Without Chair Policy

There are several challenges that internal meetings face, but one of the most common is to keep the focus on the topic. Not just it extends the time but also those important topics stay unattended.

To make sure that everything covers ups. Just Fearless added a physical approach to their internal meetings.

Here they take the chair away and everyone is required to stand until the topic ends. This pressure helps the employee or host to focus on the topics. Also, it promotes getting a better perspective.

With this, they boost their productivity but also get everyone focused on the important stuff.

However, the rule is applied to their public venues and office meetings.

5. Use 10 Minutes For Small Talks

The first 10 minutes is important for the meeting. Use it for breaking the ice and social mixer. Do small talks and ask your team about their work before you start the meeting.

It can help in improving the relationships but also help in forming the bond. You can use this opportunity to create a happy environment for the meeting.

6. Add the Swear Jar Like Concept

Swear a Jar is an approach that is mostly used for discouraging people to use cuss or swearing. The rule says if the person uses bad words in front of others who witness it.

The person is required to pay a “fine”.

Well, this approach can be used for internal meeting ideas. Just like Tripping.com did,

They set the stopwatch, timing it for 30 minutes when the meeting starts. If the time gets exceeded, the person who called the internal meeting has to pay $5 into the team jar.

This keeps things friendly, fun even if it can be a little humiliating. But it also promotes productivity and also keeps things under fixed time.

7. Use Catch Ball Technique

To break the ice and keep everyone comfortable, you can use the catch the ball technique. Here instead of going anti-clock or clockwise, you can use playing catch ball.

Let everyone stand in a circle first.
Take a rubber ball and throw it randomly to one person
Let the person who catches the ball share his or her funny incident
Ask the person to throw the ball at someone else
Keep it fun and avoid the following pattern.

This will help in keeping the mood relaxed and fun. Especially if you are hosting morning meetings, this can help in avoiding the mind-numbing and serious vibes.

8. Switch To Different Locations

The surroundings can affect the results, it can make the meeting successful or great fail.

If you can switch to a different location for example somewhere outside the office or to the local coffee shop, this will help in adding excitement and fun.

General Games, a mobile game publisher company, holds their meetings on the basketball court, shooting hoops, and brainstorming while they do the pickup game.

With this, they boost the team spirit as well as cohesiveness along with energizing the team members.

9. Keep Fun Food Activity

There are chances that people might skip their breakfast for attending the meetings in the morning.

This is not just bad for health but also affects the focus and overall productivity.

With fun food activity, you can make sure that everyone is healthy and have a better focus on their work.

Well, you can ask your members, choose one at one time and rotate the responsibility for every meeting.

Ask the member to bring something different kind of bread for each meeting, make sure you keep it in advance so they are well prepared. You can also host the best breadwinner for the month.

This will keep the meeting excited, and also take care of the early morning rumbling stomach of your team.

If you are doing it remotely, you can do the virtual pizza party. You can add sharing a meal with other members of the team.

Keep it interesting by adding conversation that can be fun, light, and more friendly.

10. Start With Brain Teaser

If you are doing the morning meetings, it can be a time when people are not excited or ready for the meetings. It can be hard for the brain to focus or produce something productive so early.

To make sure everyone is alert and active, you can start with doing a simple game or you can choose the brain teaser.

This can help you in getting more creative juices to better work and efficiency.

You can play Anti Problem, which is also mentioned in different books. With this game, you can ask your attendees to come up with a solution to the current problem but in the opposite way.

For example, if you are looking for a solution to get more footfalls for the retail store. Then ask the attendees to find the solution for how to reduce the footfalls.

With this game, you can help in getting the complete opposite perspective of the problem. Sometimes changing the perspective can help in getting the actual issue that is contributing to the main problem.

Also, you get them out of the box solutions for the problems.

11. Q & A Session For Last Minutes

To know how your meeting went and to successfully wrap it up, make sure you are saving the last 10 minutes for the Q & A session.

For starting, you might get people that have no doubts or questions. The key point here to be patient.

When the awkward silence stretches, people ask questions. Maybe some starting ones are not that useful but as it flows, there will be a lot of good and important questions in the end.

12. End Meeting Before Time

Instead of waiting for the clock to hit the time when the meeting is decided to wrap up, make sure you are ending early.

If you think no one has more questions or topics that are important and needed. Go ahead, and wrap the meeting so everyone can go back to their work.

Doing work is more productive as compared to sitting in the conference room for long hours without any need.

When you end a meeting early, it also gives your attendee to feel relaxed, better, and fresh to focus on their other work.

However make sure that all-important matters are covered, so you know the meeting was successful.

13. Accommodate With More Techs

If you are holding the meeting online, make sure everything is already ready. Not just that, even if it’s in the meeting room, you can add the right equipment and technology to help in making your meeting interesting.

You can add whiteboards, screens, markers, projectors, etc. As for online, scene share application, video calling equipment, etc.

The technology and equipment do not just help in making sure that the meeting is going smoothly. But also it will help in maintaining the focus on important matters.

Pro tip: Before you start the meeting, run a quick check to all equipment and technology so you know everything is working and you are ready for the meeting.

14. Set One Particular Space

Not knowing where your meeting will happen can be an issue and also for those who arrive late, this can be an excuse.

That’s why everyone knows where the meeting is going to happen. Choose the space which suits your attendees and the purpose of the meeting.

Pro tip: You can ask your attendees for suggestions. Make sure you do this beforehand and fix the space, make all arrangements and let everyone have access.

15. Use Timer Or Hourglass

To add more fun, you can also use the hourglass or timer. Also, designate the timekeeper.

Choose the time for every topic that can be discussed before time is up. Ask your timekeeper to announce about timing or choose a signal so the people can know their time is completed. And they can pass it to someone else.

Sometimes imposing the time limit can help you in boosting creativity and people can focus on important matters instead of wasting the time.

16. Choose Time For Ending Meeting

Starting your meeting on time is important but it’s also crucial to see you are not exceeding the meeting.

That’s why to choose the time when the meeting will officially end. Make sure everyone knows about it, and it means the topics should be covered before that.

This is an important habit to develop so people know they need to present their thoughts within the time limit.

This will help in not dragging the topics, discussions and help in taking decisions fast.

Also, it will affect the mood and behavior of attendees if they know the meeting will end on time.

Pro tip: You can do the remaining time announcements so the people know how much time is left for the meeting to end.

17. Use Modern Day Talking Stick

This can help you in boosting participation, you can use the small token or talking stick. Give it randomly to the person to talk to.

Ask the person to share the stick or chip with someone else randomly. This will keep everyone alert as the chip or stick can be randomly passed to them.

It will also keep everyone’s attention and you can build more participation. You can use it for virtual meetings too.

Use the mute button, so everyone mutes their mics and lets the person talk without getting any interruption.

Let the people speak individually on the topic.

18. Use The Award Or Incentives

People love having free items. It’s not that you are increasing the participation but also you can boost the people’s interest in coming up with unique ideas.

Insect Shield Repellent Technology hosts their internal meetings for brainstorming weekly as well as monthly.

They started the reward system where anyone who is offering the ideas that the company is going to choose, they reward the person with something.

The reward system helps the attendees to feel motivated. Also, you get more people who are looking for better ideas in order to get the rewards.

19. Write Answer On Post It

There are always some people in your meeting who won’t speak. To make sure everyone is equally interested and participating in the decision-making process.

Write some of the questions which are directly related to the agenda of the meeting. Put that onboard or group chat before everyone arrives.

Ask everyone to answer either on a post-it note or group chat in an order. Make sure this happens before the meeting starts, so you will have everyone’s point of view about the meeting and the topic.

20. No Distraction Policy

There might be some situations when the meeting is going in full flow but get distracted by someone’s phone ringing.

This is a common issue that can be solved by implying no distraction policy. Make sure no one is doing anything that can distract or cause one.

However, allow them to use the notes so they can write down their thoughts. Make sure you are restrained from giving a presentation as meetings should focus more on brainstorming and making decisions.

21. Invite Relevant People

To make sure there are fewer distractions and more work, focus on keeping the people who are relevant to the subject or the agenda of the meeting.

If it’s not the case, no matter how much you work on pre-planning or keeping meeting fun, it won’t work.

Inviting irrelevant people not just causes distraction but also drags the topics. It will waste the time, resources, and other contributions.

22. Donation For Distractions

This can be used to reduce the disturbance and get productivity. You can add this policy where anyone who causes the distance or because of them the meeting is late, they have to make a donation for the charitable fund.

This will not just reduce the rate but also you get a donation for a good cause.

23. Add Buzz Option

Lots of time, the meeting can go off track without covering the agenda or coming to any kind of

solution.

Adding the buzz option will let people buzz anyone who is bringing the problems and keep everything on track.

Also, get the notes of topics that are relevant or can be discussed in the next meeting. Use a table buzzer or simply ask to say the word buzz.

This can also give a chance to the people who want to bring the questions and solutions. With this, you can keep the people away who want to hijack the meeting often.

24. Toss Balloons

One of the fun ways that you can try for brainstorming, ask your attendees to write the ideas regarding the issues in the piece of paper.

Now, give them some balloons and put those papers inside them. Blow up those and ask to toss for 30 seconds.

Here, let one of your members catch one balloon and ask to pop it up. The idea sheet they will get, do the idea building on that.

It will give a creative and better productive output. Also, every person in the room will share their ideas and get the chance to build something on them.

25. No Rehash Ping Pong Paddle

During meetings, it can be possible that your attendees are kept repeating the same kind of ideas, spinning the off topics, and doing the long conversation that kills the purpose of having an internal meeting.

Brivo comes up with an idea that solves this kind of issue. They used the visual tool, No rehash written on a ping pong paddle, and gave it to their attendee.

When someone is repeating the same thing that already has been discussed, the person uses the ping pong paddle to stop and break the habit.

26. Mock Ted Talk

People love talking about things that they find passionate about. You can host a speaker series where the attendee gets certain minutes to talk about the topic.

Just like Johnson & Johnson did for their internal meeting which also boosted the innovation but educated people too.

This helped in creating an environment where people can talk about their ideas freely.