Using Theatre to Improve Your Business Meetings

As a manager or business owner, you’ll already understand the importance of meetings. Your team need to all be on the same page, and meetings are a great place to share ideas and increase collaborations. However, research has shown that a large percentage of employees find meetings to be unproductive and a waste of time, with a lot of them taking valuable time away from their actual work.

The truth is that while meetings are important, very few meetings are held in the right way. Few businesses have the space dedicated to holding meetings. Although you can find meeting room hire Melbourne to address this issue, the content of the meeting itself needs to be engaging. In this article, you’ll learn why engagement is important and how theatre concepts can help.

Why Engagement is Important

Engagement in business is the measure of how connected an employee feels to their organisation and its goals. Employee engagement is one of the most important factors in the productivity of a business, affecting how successful it can be. By improving engagement, employees feel more motivated to succeed and are more likely to feel better working towards the goals of the organisation.

When it comes to meetings, employees are often unengaged, as they feel the meetings themselves are a waste of time. In addition, meetings often fail to make employees feel valued or included, with a one-way presentation meaning they have little opportunity to provide opinions or feedback. By making meetings more interesting, businesses can ensure they’re more engaging and successful. This has the impact of increasing productivity and the overall levels of employee engagement.

Theatre Tips for Successful Meetings

You can learn a lot about how to hold a successful meeting by studying theatre and the arts. Every meeting should be a performance and gives you an opportunity to capture the attention of your audience and increase their engagement. Whether it’s a pitch to potential new clients or a Zoom call with your remote team, here are a few theatre tips.

Create a Compelling Script

Every actor needs a good script to shine, and meetings are no different. You need to have a clear plan on what you’re going to say before the meeting and don’t be afraid to practise your lines before you go up to take the stage. Your script should outline the key points of the meeting that you want to cover while also ensuring you understand it fully. You don’t want to simply memorise the lines, but be able to interact with your audience and tell the story in full.

Make the Most of Technology

These days we’re spoiled for choice in terms of technology, we can use it to make our lives easier. While PowerPoint presentations might not be to everyone’s liking, you can make the most of projectors, smartboards and video conferencing software to give your meetings. Ensure that you know how the technology works before you use it. Otherwise, it could just become an expensive distraction. Technical glitches can happen, so be prepared to improvise if something goes wrong.

Focus on Your Audience

Your audience is the most important part of the meeting. After all, it’s their opinion that counts the most at the end of the day. You should be looking for ways to increase participation, including asking for feedback, asking questions and taking quick polls. You can also encourage your audience to come up and give their own thoughts and opinions on the subject. This is a great way to boost engagement and help your team feel like their opinions are truly valued.