Monday’s always make me think of those weekly staff meetings I had when I was in the corporate world. Reality is most of them, though may have fulfilled their purpose, were boring and certainly did not ignite excitement and enthusiasm for the week ahead.
When I came to SpringHill I saw a whole new way to look at the “weekly staff meeting.” SpringHill’s weekly summer staff meetings are fun, inspiring and informational all at the same time. There is an almost a pep rally feeling to the entire meeting and for certain a great way to start a week of camp.
So if you want to re-invent your staff meetings here are some suggestions, based on my SpringHill experience, on how you can take a weekly (or monthly) staff meeting and make it a kick off to a great week (month):
- Use music before and after the meeting.
- Have your most creative people put a plan together to share information in a fun and memory way.
- Build an agenda on the needs of the organization as well as input from the staff.
- Highlight and recognize staff as much as possible.
- Use laughter, even on more serious issues. People get it and will remember it.
- Allow the humor to flow naturally and not always be rehearsed.
- Use video, especially home done video with some of the team as the actors. Video is a memorable way to communicate ideas.
- In smaller teams food and beverages is always a plus.
- Save the serious moments for the truly serious stuff (if you don’t use serious moments often then they can be very impactful).
- Meetings should not just reflect the leader or leaders but the organization, who you are what you are about.
If you ever want to see one of our staff meetings, they are every Sunday mornings, 11:30, all summer long at either of our overnight camps. You are welcome to join us.