Check out this comment from Cindy:

I made up a game for my weekly department meetings to refresh and train the staff in a fun and competitive way.(I was managing a despatch department in a manufacturing company)

The Game
I made a list of questions relating to the department, it’s procedures and the stock etc.
I purchased a bag of lollies and treats (a couple of dollars taken from petty cash)
I gave each person at the meeting a bell and the first one to ring the bell and get the question right got a lollie or treat.
The overall winner was the person who scored the most lollies/treats.

This game created excitement because the staff had to beat each other to the buzzer and that got them thinking at the same time. It made them all feel like a winner in the end because everyone ended up with some prizes.

However the best benefit from this game was that if they did not know the answer or couldn’t remember the answer (sometimes a person may have their facts wrong and you have been trying to enforce the correct answer – usually someone who has been there a while and think they no longer need training) that person walked away from the meeting having learnt something they will probably remember because it was taught in a fun environment.A fun way of refreshing and training.
The staff grew to love the weekly quizzes and became quite competitive about it.

Try it at your next meeting
Cheers

What do you think – could this work in your workplace? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done in a meeting?

Original post: Five weeeeeeeeird tips for great meetings.

I want to say a great big Thank You and a High Five You Rock to the conference arrangers and all who attended my keynote at Talks 2.0 in Oporto on May 7. Thanks for a fantastic time – I really enjoyed it. You guys were great and the entire day was fun and inspiring.

The background for the event was serious, namely the financial crisis in Portugal, which is affecting every aspect of work life in the country.

In my keynote, I presented my view, which is that a serious crisis only makes it MORE necessary to focus on and create happy workplaces. If we don’t the resulting stress, frustration, hopelessness and cynicism ruins peoples’ work lives and private lives, it makes us less productive and creative, and it means that economic recovery takes longer.

It was my first time in Portugal, but I got a great impression of the country and especially of the people. With this much energy, creativity, passion, humor and happiness, there is nothing you guys can’t do!

Here are some materials from the day including, slides, videos, articles and more.

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently spoke in Portugal at the amazing Talks 2.0 conference on Happiness and Creativity in the Workplace.

At the event I announced that I would release the Portuguese translation of my first book “Happy Hour is 9 to 5″ as a free e-book. Consider this my tiny contribution to workplace happiness and economic recovery in Portugal.

So here it is – it’s a completely free and unprotected pdf which you may copy and send to as many people as you like.

> Click here to get the book.

Feel free to copy it far and wide:

• Send it to everyone you know who is sad, frustrated or unhappy at work.
• Send it to every manager who’d like to help create a happier and more successful workplace.
• Send it to any politicians you know, so that they can help create better conditions for workplace happiness.
• Send it to any journalists you know so they can help spread the message.

I’m releasing it under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

This means that you may not change the e-book or make money off of it. Apart from that, go wild :o)

Happy reading – and please let me know how you like it in a comment here.