“Everyone hates meetings.” How many times have you heard that said? Meetings have a connotation of being evil, horrible things that everyone is forced to attend. But that doesn’t have to be the way. You can have monthly meetings – even weekly meetings – that people legitimately enjoy and don’t mind showing up at. Here are a couple of ways you can make meetings more tolerable for your entire office.

Only Include Those Who Have to Be Present

If you need to have a meeting about customer service, your finance team does not need to attend. If you’re talking about numbers, your website team doesn’t need to be there. If a topic doesn’t apply to everyone, then those it doesn’t apply to just don’t need to come. Not only will this help boost productivity due to allowing more employees to work, you’ll avoid building grudges among those employees who have to go to meetings even when they shouldn’t (or don’t have the time to do so).

Start Your Meetings with Praise

Nothing is more exciting than starting a meeting with free food and praise. Although you might have a completely different topic to discuss, start your meeting with acknowledgment and praise of those who have done a good job. Call them to the front of the room and tell everyone about the goal they met or surpassed and reward them with kind words. Often, being fair and kind to your employees like this will make up for any lack of money or long hours.

Set a Time Limit

Set a limit, and be firm about it. For the most part, meetings don’t need to be over half an hour. When they do go over half an hour, make sure there’s a very good reason. This may mean limiting discussion and setting a general outline for what needs to be said, but when everyone gets out of the room within 30 minutes and can get back to work, you’ll realize that your effort was worth it.

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