How A Streaker Can Change Your Meetings — Day 20 of 365 Leadership Blogging

Meetings, meetings, meetings. Some people love having them whilst others loathe them. Friend or foe we all end up in them and will never avoid them so what perhaps we should just make them more interesting.

I recently heard the story of a university lecturer who was leading a class on quantum mechanics. Half through the class he sensed the energy was flat and the student’s responsiveness became minimal. He himself then realised that his energy to teach was affected also. Suddenly the door opened and a naked young man ran into the classroom, around the desks and then ran out of the class.

The mood of the class immediately changed and the energy levels went from 10 to 100. Everybody woke up and was fully alert and after about 15 mins when the class settled down from the shock, the lecturer resumed his class. His delivery more energetic and the students were fully engaged. Thanks to the streaker the class were more productive in the following four weeks than it had been in the previous six weeks.

So what happened?

The lecturer quickly recognised that a shift in focus and attention helped him and his students snap out of a low energy environment. The streaker was an obvious energy shifter that lesson, but from the experience, he senses were heightened to the mode of the class. Whilst delivering lectures he recognised when the mode became flat. He would stop talking and do something completely different involving some physical movement. It became the key to a successful class over the four weeks.

Formal meetings don’t have to always be formal. There are no rules for how to run meetings, only the ones we inherit or mimic. Being creatures of habit we can easily fall into the trap of doing what we always have done or seen others doing. Next time you are leading a meeting consider these suggestions to break up the formal nature:

1. Invite everyone to bring snacks to share
2. Have the meeting outdoors
3. Prepare an ice breaker focused on non-work matters
4. Invoke a break in the middle of the meeting — especially long meetings
5. Be discerning about the engagement and energy of meeting attendees
6. Encourage everyone to participate in some way
7. Always remember a streaker could walk through the door at any time

Your challenge is to introduce something new to at least one of your meetings. Whether you lead meetings or are a meeting attendee, take up the challenge, you will be surprised with the results.

Let us know if you will take up the challenge or the outcome of a change to your meetings, over on our social platforms Coach Dev and Coach Vee