Lets face it. A team meeting is something in the workspace that people love and hate â team meetings are an effective way to align information and facilitate discussion, while they are often dull and tiring.
Well, time changes and team meetings can also be fun and inspiring, with a few tweaks here and there.
Whether youre hosting an online meeting or gathering physically in the same room, with the easy-to-implement team meeting ideas and topics in this blog post, youll definitely know how to liven up the next meeting and get everyone involved!
Team meetings are an essential part of any workplace. They provide opportunities for collaboration, problem-solving, and relationship building among team members. However coming up with fresh and interesting topics for team meetings can be challenging. You want to keep your team engaged without rehashing the same old issues and activities.
In this article, we will explore 19 engaging topics to liven up your next team meeting at work. With a mix of lighthearted icebreakers, structured discussions, and goal-oriented plans, these topics will get your team talking and keep them motivated
1. Round-Robin Brainstorming Session
Get those creative juices flowing with a round-robin brainstorming session. Come prepared with a specific issue or project as the focus. Then go around the room and have each person share one innovative idea or solution.
Encourage wild, outside-the-box thinking. Write down each idea without any judgement or debate Once everyone has contributed, go back and discuss which solutions have the most potential.
2. Personal Triumphs at Work
Tap into your team’s sense of accomplishment by having everyone share a recent workplace triumph. These could be completing a difficult project, earning a new certification, or receiving praise from a customer.
Discuss what factors led to each success. Were certain skills, habits, or support systems critical? This allows team members to recognize each other’s achievements and learn new ways to excel.
3. Lessons Learned from Failures
Nobody succeeds all the time. Reflecting on failures and setbacks can provide valuable wisdom. Have each team member describe a time when something went wrong at work and how they responded.
Discuss what was learned in the process, and how they would handle the situation differently in the future. This promotes a growth mindset and helps build resilience.
4. Area for Personal Growth and Improvement
Self-improvement should never stop. Give your team time to share one area for personal growth within their role. This could involve developing a new skill, improving time management, or becoming a better public speaker.
Allow teammates to provide support and advice for achieving these goals. Schedule check-ins during future meetings to track progress.
5. Department or Project Status Updates
Team meetings present the perfect chance for members to provide status updates on their department or project. Discuss recent wins, current roadblocks, and upcoming goals.
This keeps everyone informed, rather than stuck in their own silo. It also fosters discussion around providing resources, support, and new ideas where needed.
6. Lessons Learned This Week
Have team members share professional lessons or insights gained over the past week. These could relate to everything from mastering a new technology to improving customer service interactions.
Discuss patterns and common takeaways across different roles. Capture the wisdom to incorporate into organizational knowledge, training programs, and the onboarding of new hires.
7. Achievable Goals for the Next Quarter
Every few months, have each team member announce one achievable goal to accomplish over the next quarter. The goals should be specific, measurable, and realistic based on other workload.
Revisit the goals at the end of the time period to celebrate achievements and recalibrate if needed. This encourages accountability and forward momentum.
8. Favorite Movies or TV Shows connections strengthen teams. Take time for some non-work banter by having everyone share a favorite movie or television show and why they love it.
Find common interests across the team, learn a bit about each other’s personalities, and spark conversations around worthwhile entertainment. A dash of humor and levity can make work more enjoyable.
9. Host an AMA Session
An “ask me anything” (AMA) session allows team members to pick each other’s brains. Each meeting, select a different team member to be the focus.
They start by giving a quick overview of their background, experience, and expertise. The rest of the team then has the chance to ask them candid questions about their work, career path, lessons learned, etc.
10. Throwback Thursday: First Job Stories
Use Throwback Thursday as inspiration for sharing amusing stories about team members’ first jobs. Discuss lessons learned, hardest and most enjoyable parts, and how early work experiences still influence them.
These lighthearted reflections remind the team how far they’ve come in their careers and how much they’ve grown since starting out.
11. Recognizing Accomplishments with Specific Kudos
Too often, recognition occurs only during formal performance reviews. Make praise an embedded part of team meetings. Have members provide specific kudos to others for recent wins, no matter how small.
Being acknowledged motivates us to keep achieving. It also boosts morale and cultivates peer support networks.
12. Team Feature of the Week
Help team members learn what each role entails by featuring a new one every week. Give that person 5-10 minutes to provide an overview of their typical responsibilities and current projects.
Teammates can then ask clarifying questions about their work. This builds interdepartmental empathy and expertise.
13. Book Club Discussion
Reading broadens horizons and sparks new ideas. Create your own workplace book club. Select professional development books, assign each a meeting, and hold focused discussions sharing your takeaways.
Explore how the concepts apply to your work and how they could influence policies and procedures.
14. Offsite Field Trip
Escape the office walls by organizing a field trip to an inspiring location aligned with your team’s focus. Tour a design studio, volunteer for a neighborhood improvement project, or shadow employees at a partner organization.
Experiential activities break down barriers between teammates and get creativity flowing.
15. Passion Project Updates
Everyone needs outlets beyond day-to-day responsibilities. Have team members take turns giving quick passion project updates. These could include hobbies, volunteer work, continuing education classes, or anything else they love working on outside the office.
It’s fulfilling to support each other’s personal growth and interests. Celebrate accomplishments happening in all areas of life.
16. Team Yearbook Superlatives
Add some levity to meetings with lighthearted yearbook superlatives. Award titles for categories like “Most Likely to Brighten Your Day,” “Best Brainstormer,” and “Team Comedian.”
Keep things humorous and positive. This allows the team to acknowledge each other’s quirks and talents while building camaraderie.
17. Gratitude Circle
Practicing gratitude together benefits the whole team. Take time for everyone to express appreciation to another member for something specific they did. Recognize efforts big and small, from landing a new client to always loading the dishwasher.
Gratitude boosts morale, wellbeing, and levels of team support. Make this a regular ritual at meetings.
18. Team Trivia Game
Inject some friendly competition into meetings with trivia games focused on your team, company, industry, or niche work-related facts. Split into teams and have the fun begin.
Trivia breaks the ice, energizes your crew’s brains, and lets them flex their knowledge muscle in new ways.
19. Out-of-the-Box Problem Solving
Pose an actual current work challenge or dilemma. Then lead an activity where each person writes creative solutions individually on post-its, with a goal of generating as many ideas as possible.
Compile all the post-its and review the options as a team without any initial judgement. Seeing the issue from diverse angles sparks innovative breakthroughs.
Make Your Team Meetings Matter Again
Monotonous team meetings waste time and lower engagement. But by focusing each gathering on meaningful topics that enlighten, inspire and bring your crew together, you gatherings will start achieving their true potential.
Use these 19 ideas as a springboard for infusing your team’s time with productive knowledge sharing, goal alignment, and essential human connections. When great minds link up regularly around shared purpose, your organization will gain the power to reach exciting new heights together.
2 Engage in show and tellÂ
Show and Tell is a classic game that can also be adapted to virtual meetings to increase employee engagement and interaction.Â
During the meeting, set aside some time for each employee to present an object and explain why and what it means to them. Encourage everyone to ask questions and engage with each other throughout the process.Â
To make things even more exciting, you could give out awards for the most interesting object, most meaningful object, or the best presentation.Â
1 Host an interactive meeting with props
Hosting an interactive meeting with props, such as whiteboards and markers, is a great team meeting idea to make a meeting more engaging.
Start by setting up the props, for example, a whiteboard, which everyone can use to create a mind map or outline discussion topics. Encourage participants to contribute their ideas and add to the board using different colors and fonts to keep the discussion interesting and visually engaging.
5 Things to Cover in Weekly Team Meetings | How to Run a Staff Meeting Effectively
What are staff meeting ideas?
These insights are also known as “staff meeting ideas.” These ideas are a type of unusual team building activity, virtual team building activity and remote employee engagement exercise. The ideas are similar to team building meetings, morning meeting ideas, virtual morning meeting ideas and community building activities. This list includes:
What should you discuss at your next team meeting?
Here are a few potential topics to discuss at your next team meeting: 1. Logistics Logistics meetings provide opportunities for the team to discuss intricate details and challenges of their tasks. During the sessions, the company may require team members to share updates about recent business developments and their assignments and projects.
What is a good team meeting topic?
No matter the industry your business is in, an important team meeting topic is customer stories – whether good or bad. You need to know what your customer is saying, listen to any recent reviews a customer has left, or read an email from a customer out loud to the team.
What is an example of a team meeting idea?
Example ideas include walking meetings, field trips, and team Pomodoro sessions. The purpose of these activities is to engage and energize attendees, spark creativity, and facilitate team building. These insights are also known as “staff meeting ideas.”
