Must-Try Morning Meeting Activities

Whether you are a morning person or a night owl, morning meeting activities can be highly effective in starting the day right. Morning meeting activities, also known as morning huddles, are an easy way of sharing information, updates, and developments on the go. Executives are actually said to spend around 23 hours a week on meetings.

Morning activities are not meant to replace your scheduled periodic meetings. On the contrary, they complement them. Periodic meetings are meant for detailed planning of work weeks and projects, while morning meetings should serve as a quick update between you and your team.

Studies show that people pay attention to around 10 to 18 minutes before they drift away. Take advantage of that undivided attention in these meetings.

Morning huddles are a great way to boost productivity and employee morale. In fact, it is said that morning meeting activity can go as far as increasing safety at work in industries like construction.

Related: The Important Role of A Construction Manager

Why Morning Meeting Activities?

Okay - let’s get down to business. Why should we bother wasting time in the morning with these activities? you may ask. Overall, morning meeting activities, when done right, should:

• Improve team communication,

• Reduce misunderstandings,

• Lead to better teamwork,

• Increase safety at work for some industries,

• Create a proactive company culture,

• Avoid employee disengagement,

• Increase productivity

• Boost employee morale.

💡 Quick Tip

Depending on the size and culture of the company, meetings in the morning can quickly become chaotic, with everyone talking over each other, disrupting the flow of the conversation and the meeting as a whole. If you find it fitting to your company, we recommend choosing a person who will be in charge of running these meetings. 

This person’s role is not to turn these quick meetings into structured and official meetings; that would stray away from the casual nature of morning meeting activities. The role of the coordinator is to simply start off the conversation and make sure that the meeting agenda is being followed. A new study of 19 million meetings shows that following an agenda, however simple it is, makes meetings more effective.

The person running these meetings should be someone who is a good listener and easy to communicate with. Do you know anyone in your company who fits this profile? This way, employees feel comfortable with letting them lead the meetings, making it more likely that they will share their thoughts and concerns openly.

Related: The Qualities of a Great Leader

Four Must-Try Morning Meeting Activity Ideas

Coffee and Donuts

Who doesn’t love that, right? If you’re part of a traditional modern company, meaning you work at an office, pick up some donuts on your way to the office for the team.

If your team works at a job site, like in construction, take some donuts to the site with you. Employees doing physical labor never underestimate the power of a donut. And, those added calories will surely help through the day!

Allow the team to make morning coffee and have their sweet treat while having the meeting. Nothing like caffeine and sugar for employee engagement.

Related: A Guide to Measuring Productivity Across Job Sites 

Shake things up

No one is expecting anything extraordinary on their way to the morning meeting. This is your time to surprise them. You can host a short competition to shake things up a little bit and wake everyone up. This unconventional activity drives engagement since people tend to check off at meetings, with 69% of workers admitting to multitasking and checking emails while in a meeting.

You can play a short game of charades or challenge your team to solve a short puzzle in less than ten minutes. To make it even more interesting, you can reward the person or team who wins with a gift card. This can boost the morning energy and inspire some friendly competition between co-workers before getting down to business.

The Monday Ice Breaker

Stand around in a circle and throw a small ball around. The person who is holding the ball should tell a fun fact about them that others don’t know about them or share something fun they did over the weekend. 

This activity is fun because it’s relaxed and has no expectations attached to it. It is the equivalent of asking each other what they did over the weekend but in a more fun way. Once everyone has had a chance to speak, the atmosphere will be more relaxed and you can proceed with the agenda.

The Sticky Note 

If your morning meeting activity revolves around a certain solution you’re seeking, you can use this time to brainstorm with your team. Bring out a bunch of sticky notes and ask for your team’s opinion, such as identifying key obstacles and ways of overcoming them.

This can be an important step in breaking down the communication barrier that may be holding back your team. In fact, a study found that $31 billion was lost due to miscommunication in the construction industry. 

What About Remote Work?

You might be wondering about where these morning meeting activities fit in with remote work. If you are leading remotely, we have good news for you. While platforms like Atto help you keep track of employee timesheets, platforms like Zoom help you have those classic morning huddles from afar. You’re covered on all fronts.

It is worth noting that you should use Zoom and similar platforms with caution since they may present security risks to your business.

For instance, if you have a landscaping business and your employees are in different locations and might not see each other or you in the morning, that’s no reason to simply give up on morning huddles. Have a quick group call in the morning to share updates and information. 

This will not only help you keep track of your employees, but it will also help them feel connected with one another. It is common to feel very disengaged and isolated when the team works far from each other. However, keeping up with morning meeting activities will do wonders in terms of bringing team spirit up by making everyone feel included.

An engaged culture at the workplace is actually shown to increase customer ratings by 10% and sales by 20%. 

Related: How to Stay Focused at Work: Helping you succeed in the digital age

💡 Quick Tip

Remote morning meeting activities don’t have to feel forced nor stressed. While teams on the job site can chit chat by the coffee machine and have that organic experience, you can still try and mimic it for the remote setting as well. 

You can do this by having quick morning video calls with the team in the morning while having morning coffee. Who says you can't have virtual coffee dates?

In an organic setting, people would usually have some chit chat before the meeting started. Leave some space for small talk at the start of your video call as well. When it feels like the right moment, start off by sharing the information you need to and ask others to do the same. 

Related: Remote Employee Time Tracking: How to Manage Your Remote Staff