| Humor at Work |
ISSUE 760 - Feb. 6, 2019 |
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Meaningful Meetings |
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A Microsoft survey of 38,000 people revealed that 69% of the time people spend in meetings is unproductive time! Meanwhile, over in a Salary.com survey, 47% of employees complained that there were far too many meetings in their workplace. Here are some tips that might help on both fronts:
- Would a meeting diet help? While communication is undeniably important, challenge your assumptions that every meeting is needed. Are you meeting out of habit or out of a real need?
- Make better use of virtual technology. Yes, face-to-face is always ideal, but can meeting virtually, for example via Zoom, save you time, money and stress?
- Can you reduce the number of longer meetings by tapping into the power of quick (10 minutes maximum) daily team huddles?
- Are you relentlessly asking who really needs to be at every meeting? There's a difference between interested parties (who want to know the outcome of a meeting) vs. people who truly need to be present!
- Do you always clarify the purpose of your meeting before the start?
- Can single-purpose theme meetings help you be more productive and focused?
- Meetings love a vacuum: If you book two hours you'll fill two hours!
- Can you eliminate time-wasters at meetings? A mock security check-in for everyone's e-gadgets can work wonders to help participants stay present and focused.
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Mike's Fun at Work Tip |
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The Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee has an official "Recombobulation Area" for stressed-out passengers who feel discombobulated after passing through security. The space includes chairs and benches for passengers to put their belts and shoes back on, and yes, recombobulate themselves. Yes, it's a made up word, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive. So create some fun signs identifying specific
areas in your business - either for your external customers or internal signs that identify some of the unique spaces in your office.
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Quote of the Week |
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“Humor is important. I don’t believe you have to act seriously to be taken seriously.” Sara Blakely, Founder, Spanx
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It's a Wacky World |
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Speaking of interesting words such as "recombobulation", here are a few real-life words from around the world that might come in handy:
Utepils: A Norwegian word meaning "to sit outside on a sunny day enjoying a beer."
Iktsuarpok: An Inuit word that describes the feeling of anticipation that leads you to look outside to see if anyone is coming.
Hanyauku: From Namibia - walking on your toes on warm sand.
Rire dans sa barbe: A French phrase meaning to laugh in your beard quietly while thinking about something from the past.
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Copyright © 2019 Humor at Work. All Rights Reserved.
mike@mikekerr.com
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