Monday Tip: Candy for meetings
Last week’s tip was about creating positive meetings and so is this week’s. Only this tip is really, really simple. Ready:
Bring a bowl of candy to a meeting today.
That’s it. Bring candy to a meeting. And share it, obviously, I didn’t mean for you to sit there gorging yourself with everyone else looking on enviously.
Something nice happens to the mood when people eat together, even if they’re only munching on licorice. For extra bonus points:
- Bring candy that makes it hard to speak. It’s fun to see a co-worker explain something serious while chewing on a jawbreaker and it lowers the tempo of meetings, resulting in more time for reflection and ideas.
- If the meeting gets tense, pass the bowl around. This can break the tension when everyone is chewing winegums.
- Replace the candy with something healthier but equally delicious. Strawberries, cherries, apples…
Try to avoid the heavy stuff like donuts and danish – they give people a heavy sugar rush that makes them hyper at first and then tired and apathetic after 30 minutes.
The Chief Happiness Officer’s monday tips are simple, easy, fun things you can do to make yourself and others happy at work and get the work-week off to a great start. Something everyone can do in five minutes, tops. When you try it, write a comment here to tell me how it went.
emme Said,
July 31, 2006 @ 1:39 pm
I do this often – my team is all female, except for one happy male, so the sugar intake at meetings is traditional. Every other month we try for fruit, but it only lasts until someone thinks of a new type of candy that we have to try out.
We’re sugar slaves.
java101.blogspot Said,
September 15, 2006 @ 3:17 am
this is by far my favorite. i tried it this week and made bunch of co-workers happy.
Alexander Kjerulf Said,
September 15, 2006 @ 8:00 am
Excellent – I’m glad it worked :o)
Five weeeeeeeeird tips for great meetings Said,
February 20, 2007 @ 12:33 pm
[...] Monday Tip: Candy for meetings [...]
Teresa Said,
March 2, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
This might be an all right tip for a man, but a woman who feeds coworkers is sending out mom/wife/caretaker-vibes that are likely to impact everyone’s perceptions and reduce her credibility and her promotability.
Joanna M. Pineda Said,
March 2, 2009 @ 10:33 pm
We have a bowl of Hershey’s dark chocolate kisses at every meeting. Everyone knows that if you have a meeting with Matrix Group, you get purple, dark chocolate kisses. We get to say that we’re doing something good for their heart and the meeting is always a little sweeter. I just had a client ask if we could meet at our office so she could enjoy some chocolate. :-)