Sunday, March 30, 2014

Sweeten Up Your Next Business Meeting

By Elba Fenwick


The Staff Meeting. It's an unavoidable part of running a business. While it's necessary to meet with your employees, the level of enthusiasm for these meetings is often quite low. However, with a little thought, you can transform a stale, dull meeting into a more constructive and fun event. The following tips can help you plan a successful meeting your staff will enjoy.

In any business, it's all about leaderships and a good leader can truly set a positive tone about an upcoming meeting by simply showing some enthusiasm. Set the stage with a great meeting agenda that you send out days in advance. Provide a concrete start time and end time and list exactly what issues will be addressed during the meeting. Don't forget to include something humorous, such as joke or a relevant cartoon to lighten the mood.

When everyone arrives, be an enthusiastic leader, tell a quick joke and lighten the mood. Quickly recap the reason for the meeting and then start hitting the tasks on the agenda. People already have the agenda and probably have at least skimmed it, so don't spend too much time hitting every agenda item. If possible, start out with an agenda item that involves everyone present at the meeting, such as brainstorming ideas for a new project.

Provide pens, papers and a copy of the agenda for each person. Encourage people to take notes and ask questions. If you are brainstorming, write down every idea without comment. Obviously every idea is not a great idea, but allowing employees to think outside the box enhances their creativity.

Providing something to munch on is always a fantastic idea and can really go a long way toward making your meeting a positive experience. Coffee, tea, bottled water or other beverages should be available, but a fun sweet treat will be a highly welcome addition. Consider something truly creative such as ordering gourmet chocolate pizzas from Chocolate Pizza Company. Not only do these chocolate delights taste amazing, the presentation is quite striking, as each pizza is actually placed into a genuine pizza box.

Chocolate Pizza Company makes each of these gourmet chocolate pizzas by hand, beginning with a crust of melted dark or milk chocolate mixed with English toffee. For a white chocolate pizza, the crust is a blend of dried cranberries, almonds and, of course, gourmet white chocolate. You can select many different toppings, including candy, nuts and even graham crackers and marshmallows. You can purchase a few different options so that your staff can sample a variety of flavors. Not only will this be a fun treat after or before the meeting, your employees certainly will appreciate the fact that you really took the time to offer them something special. This alone can truly increase the success of any business meeting.




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