Think about a game you really enjoy. Why do you play? What makes the game enjoyable? Why is it fun?
Now think about your last meeting. Who was there? What was the goal of the meeting? What was the process you used to get the people to move toward the goal?
Now think of the game again. Make a list of things that make your favorite game fun. The thing is, games and meetings have some things in common, Unfortunately, fun usually isn’t one of those things. But what they do have in common is that they involve people going through a shared process to try to achieve a goal.
See if you can find ideas from your favorite game that could make your meeting more fun and enjoyable. For example, could you design a game board that would help you track progress in the meeting? Could you pass a ball around from speaker to speaker to reduce the number of interruptions? Maybe you could write some questions on index cards and have people draw cards and answer the questions.
Studies have shown that people who are emotionally engaged learn and remember better. So if you make a meeting fun, you are also more likely to improve learning and people are more likely to remember what they learned.
Take a chance, try something new in your next meeting, and see if you can turn work into play!