Ask the EXpert: How to end meetings on a high?
Dear EXperts,
I’m aware of lots of tools and methods for starting meetings well such as checkins, icebreakers and energisers, but do you have any suggestions for ending meetings on a high? For example, a weekly team meeting which aims to share project and company updates.
– Founder of HealthTech Startup
Our EXpert advice
We absolutely LOVE this question. Ending our meetings on a high note is just as important as starting them well. It leaves us all with a positive feeling, can boost team morale and even strengthen connection and belonging amongst team mates.
Here are some our favourite checkout activities (almost all of which can be done remotely or IRL):
Highlights Hoedown 🤠 Take a few minutes at the end of your meeting to ask everyone to share a highlight of the week. This could be something they learnt, reaching a certain milestone, starting a new project, or even something personal! You can either do this verbally, one-by-one, or you could do it in the chat, on a virtual whiteboard or on post-its if you’re in person.
Stretch + Share 🙆 Decide a theme that you’d like everyone to share something for - for example, a highlight of the week, something they’ve learnt, how they’re feeling, something they’re grateful for, someone they like to say thank you for, what they’re up to at the weekend… you get the idea. You’ll go around the team, one-by-one, and when someone shares their answer, they will do a stretch which everyone else will copy. And yes, you can do this online, too.
Emoji or GIF party 🎉 This is for our remote pals. Ask everyone in the team to share an emoji or GIF into the chat to illustrate how they’re feeling. Enjoy the chaos that follows! If you want to take it a step further, ask everyone to reenact their emoji or GIF - cameras on!
Appreciation Chatterfall 🫶 This is a great check-out activity for quickly creating the warm and fuzzies. Ask everyone in your meeting to type an appreciation message into the chat for something that happened during your session (or that week, if you prefer) - but don’t hit send yet! Once your timer expires, have everyone publish their chat message at once. Then, sit back and watch the appreciation chatterfall messages flow.
Gratitude Gathering 🤗 By now, you know we love alliteration - SUE US! Here’s another for getting those warm and fuzzies. In the chat or on post-its, ask your team to write down something their grateful for and feel that boost of serotonin when you see everyone’s responses.
Weekend roundup 💫 Sometimes it’s the simple things. Make time to hear about your team mates weekend plans with a weekend roundup. You could do this verbally, in the chat or in a Slack channel. This gives you the opportunity to learn about each other, find shared interests and follow up in the next week or check in on each other.
Shake it off 🕺 Call us crazy but this is one of the most effective ways to shake off bad vibes. You can ask our clients! Set a timer for 1 minute (yes, a full minute, no cheating) and then get shaking. Shake your hands, wrists, arms, hips, legs, feet, ankles, head - the lot! This isn’t just for bad vibes, it’s also for boosting energy, getting movement, breaking up sitting at our desk and so much more. Remember to hit record, too 👀
