Forget stuffy offices and boring boardrooms – if you want to get more out of your meetings, why not try a completely new environment by arranging a meeting outdoors? Whether it’s in a local park, on a bench in the grounds of your office or even a meeting on the move, outdoor meetings might not be as crazy as they first sound.
Okay, so it might be harder to take notes but if you want creative solutions to a problem or need to resolve conflict then an outdoor meeting might be much better than staying indoors. This is because the environment that we are in, whether indoors or outdoors; has a huge impact on our mental and emotional state. This in turn has an impact on the outcome of your meeting.
For example, if you are hosting a meeting straight after lunch, you might find that your colleagues are feeling sleepy and a meeting in a boardroom is unlikely to energise them. If you take the meeting outdoors instead, the fresh air will help them feel more awake and able to contribute. And if you’re trying to resolve conflict at work, then taking the meeting outdoors can have huge benefits as the natural environment has been shown to have a calming effect on people, meaning that they are more likely to be open to compromise than if you meet indoors.
The natural environment has also been shown to boost creativity – so if you’re looking for ideas for your next product or marketing campaign, take your colleagues outdoors and you’re likely to get better ideas than staying in the same boring office environment.
For more information about effective meetings, visit: www.mindtools.com