{"id":30607,"date":"2021-03-29T19:49:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T23:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=30607"},"modified":"2021-03-31T19:56:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T23:56:15","slug":"keep-employees-engaged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/keep-employees-engaged\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Drama to Keep Employees Engaged in Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you find that your employees are bored during team meetings? How can you keep employees engaged<\/a> and participating during meetings?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Patrick Lencioni’s book Death by Meeting, <\/em>one of the best ways to keep your employees engaged<\/a> in meetings is to add drama. Just like a good movie, meetings should have a hook to draw employees in, a conflict between characters (different employee opinions), and a resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn how you can keep your employees engaged during meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How To Keep Employees Engaged in Meetings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Death by Meeting,<\/em> CEO Casey had never seriously considered working anywhere other than at Yip. He loved it there and he had no idea what he would do if J.T. pushed him out. His assistant ,Will, wanted to help as best as he could, and as he watched some movies to attempt to unwind, he realized that the problem with the meetings wasn\u2019t the length but the lack of drama<\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will developed this theory and decided to present it to the team at the next meeting. Screenwriters had figured out that for a movie to be successful, it needs conflict, or a problem that needs to be solved or resolved. Will applied a similar logic to meetings. In fact, the decisions made in meetings are actually much more important to the participants\u2019 lives than a movie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like in the movies, meetings have to have a hook\u2014a good beginning that leaves participants willing to digest necessary plot exposition that might be a little slower. Consider discussing a budget: It sounds boring. But if the leader of the discussion sets it up correctly\u2014by explaining the stakes in the line items and the competitors breathing down the company\u2019s neck\u2014people will be more willing to engage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engage Conversations Around Differences of Opinion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After the setup of the conflict, keep looking for differences of opinion.<\/strong> It\u2019s unlikely that, after the team airs their conflict, they will reach a complete consensus. However, everyone will feel better after airing their grievances and making compelling points on the behalf of their idea, and when a decision is made by a majority or by a leader, people will be more willing to support it, even if it wasn\u2019t their original idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casey and the team then practiced creating drama in meetings with a discussion about a picnic that the company was paying for by taking money out of the budgets of other departments. Though it seemed trivial, the picnic was a longstanding issue for the company. Many executives were angry that the company was taking out even a small amount of money from their budgets to fund the picnic, and the woman in charge of the picnic was frustrated because she didn\u2019t even want to lead the event. When everyone involved aired their grievances, they all felt better. But still, Casey wasn\u2019t perfect at facilitating discussion right away\u2014he sometimes shied away from conflict or didn\u2019t know when to move on from a topic\u2014and Will thought that they could do better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will went back to thinking about the movies. He started developing theories, and with only two weeks to go now before the meeting with Wade, Will was nervous. He decided he needed to present his new theories to the team. According to Will, just like the movies and television, all good meetings have two big elements: drama and structure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have More Frequent Meetings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

He also believed that even though this team had trouble with the meetings, they needed to have more <\/em>of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n