In Meetings, To Play’s the Thing
By Alexandra “Alex” Suchman and Cathy Brown
According to the Harvard Business Review, “Meetings are still the prime venue to build and foster a fully inclusive culture that engages and equips people to do their very best at work.” Given that, is there a business context more in need of play than meetings? NASAGAns know that play:
Enhances communication
Builds trust
Supports diversity of thought
Strengthens sense of shared identity and objectives
Here are some ideas for how to make meetings more playful, engaging, and effective.
When (or where) to integrate play into a meeting
There are many ways thoughtfully incorporating play into planning and executing meetings can transform the experience:
Kicking off in an energetic and engaging way
Establishing meeting norms and practices
Brainstorming ideas
Prioritizing solutions
Choosing meeting attendees
Here are some ways to use play for meeting openers or to establish meeting norms and practices.
Meeting sabotage. You can build an environment of trust and openness up front by starting meetings with this activity. Ask “If you were a spy sent to derail a meeting, what could you do to suppress trust and openness without blowing your cover?” Each person takes a turn sharing ideas to disrupt a meeting. After everyone has a chance to contribute, reverse each item on the list to create a set of best practices. You might even share the story of the WWII “Simple Sabotage” manual, which infamously described terrible management practices.
Placards. This is a great way to accommodate internal processors who prefer to think individually before sharing ideas. For example, to arrive at a meeting code of conduct, meeting participants write their ideas for holding an inclusive, productive meeting on pieces of paper, one idea per page. Pages are posted and participants are invited to review the ideas silently. Next participants work in pairs to discuss work through a process of elimination to arrive at a final list. This activity could be modified to prioritize a set of solutions. Here's one set potential set of placards.
Purple Flag Moments. Call a flag on that play! Just Work cofounders Kim Scott and Trier Bryant found a playful way to call attention to words and behaviors that could be offensive. Borrowing from football, Scott and Bryant encourage their teams to throw an actual purple flag to call attention to words and actions that could leave marginalized or underrepresented colleagues feeling uncomfortable. Using purple flags or other symbols to identify biased or hurtful language is a playful way to acknowledge when better word choices are needed. Read more about Purple Flag Moments here.
Enhancing Meeting Inclusivity
Play is also perfect for making meetings more inclusive. Here are a few of our favorite strategies:
Tap into Nonverbal Communication. Many people try to infuse energy into meetings by kicking off with a question that everyone answers, such as “If you could be any household appliance what would you be?” or “Where would you go if you could be transported anywhere in the world right now?” Those questions are fine, but they don’t activate other parts of the brain. Asking a question and having people draw their responses allows them to think and express themselves in a more abstract or creative way. Tools like Piccles or Zoom Annotate allow for easy, anonymous virtual drawing that remove pressure for the drawing to “be good,” because they are intentionally clunky. When everyone’s art looks like it came from a kindergarten class, it’s easy to relax and experience joy from interpreting and hearing stories about people’s drawings.
Brainstorming. In typical brainstorming situations, the loudest and most expressive team members dominate the idea generation. Bogglestorm, a game from the Thiagi Gameletter archive, levels the playing field by incorporating individual brainstorming and borrowing the scoring system from the word game Boggle®. In this timed brainstorming variation, players brainstorm individually, listing as many unique ideas as they can on a piece of paper. Next, the players compare lists, eliminating duplicate answers. The winner is the player who ends up with the most unique ideas.
Bogglestorm can be played in rounds to identify causes and solutions. For example, the first question can focus on a problem and the second one can generate possible solutions.
First round: Which diversity markers can pose a challenge in the workplace?
Second round: What initiatives can make the workplace more inclusive?
For more ideas on how to use Bogglestorm, refer to the THIAGI Gameletter 2014.
Prioritizing Solutions. What if there are many good ideas, but only a few can be selected? Another game, Thirty-Five, rapidly sorts ideas from top idea on down. Players write their best idea on a card. Next, players rapidly exchange cards, hot potato style. The game facilitator calls time, players pair up and compare their cards. Each pair divides 7 points between the cards and writes the score on each card. The round is repeated four more times to make five rounds. After the fifth round, players add up the scores on each card. The pair holding the highest scoring idea is read aloud, then the next, and so on.
Visit the Thiagi Game Letter for more detailed instructions on this game.
Summary
Despite their bad reputation, meetings are still critical for communicating, maintaining connection and culture, and getting work done. So why not leverage play to make meetings meaningful, not only because of the agenda items and outcomes, but because they create valuable synchronous opportunities for colleagues to spend time together furthering shared goals?
Alex Suchman is CEO and Cofounder of Barometer XP. Her mission is to foster thriving teams, so work can be a source of genuine meaning and connection for everyone. She uses games and play with her clients toward various learning and development outcomes in order to build stronger workplace cultures. You can connect with Alex via email at alex@barometerxp.com or via LinkedIn.
Cathy Brown is a learning professional with deep expertise in instructional design and performance consulting. She holds a Master's degree in Instruction and Performance Technology from Boise State University. After a long career working for manufacturing, travel, retail, and non-profit organizations, she recently launched Rhoads Brown Consulting. Cathy is passionate about supporting professional organizations and collaborating with others. She is active with the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) at the Society and chapter level. She has also been active with the Atlanta chapter of ATD. If you want to get in touch with Cathy to discuss learning projects or collaborating, email her at Cathy@RhoadsBrown.com.
Thumbnail image generated by FluxPro in BoodleBox via structured prompt.
