If Your All Hands Meetings are Snooze Fests, Try These Tips

All-hands business meetings — colloquially called town halls — have become the norm when companies want to talk about pressing issues with employees. Smaller companies may have these gatherings once a week to assess what needs to happen in the next several days. Larger companies often have these meetings once per month at the departmental level.

Managers typically use town halls to disseminate information to a lot of people at once while getting feedback and taking questions. Workers pay attention during business meetings if these sessions engage them and keep them interested. That means there are right and wrong ways to host these gatherings.

Food is one motivator to get people to look forward to business meetings. The chow doesn't have to be elaborate. Try serving simple sandwiches, and provide enough variety to please most of the attendees. If you bring out a three-course buffet, everyone raves about the food, and the spread becomes a major distraction. Start the important part of the meeting after everyone eats the food.

Forget using slideshows and handouts — these tools are old ways of doing things. You need an agenda to stay on task, but don't limit yourself to a script that everyone must follow. It's okay to speak off the cuff and outline your feelings on the topics you present. Shake things up sometimes by not having an agenda or having team members create the agenda.

Vary who runs the meetings and who speaks in front of everyone. The same person month after month turns business meetings in the same old routine. Surprise employees with occasional guests. Alter the start and finish times to mix things up a bit.

Embrace new kinds of technology, such as smartphone apps and surveys, that help make business meetings more interactive. Let your employees and team members determine the topics to discuss from a list of 10 to 20 ideas. Present answers to employee questions, gathered beforehand, in cool infographics sent to everyone's smartphones. Your technology doesn't have to take over the meeting with traditional PowerPoint presentations or slideshows.

Test out any technology beforehand. You don't want any delays, snafus or distractions taking away from everyone's valuable time. Make sure your apps run and everyone has a chance to preview the meeting agenda, if you have one, beforehand. A simple email announcing the vital details of the next meeting lets everyone know what to expect. Listen to any concerns and feedback before the gathering starts, and alter any aspects of a meeting accordingly.

Jargon and lingo may put some team members to sleep, so speak in terms that everyone understands. Don't forget to open the floor for suggestions about the meeting itself, and make an effort to implement the most useful feedback. No bad ideas come out of these monthly meetings, so embrace the beauty of an all-hands gathering, and host these gatherings the right way.

Everyone can enjoy business meetings, especially when they involve food, fun, facts and feedback to keep team members interested. Recognize that you cannot please everyone, but make sure all hands get something out of each session.

Photo courtesy of Christine und Hagen Graf at Flickr.com