How to take your company’s meetings from good to great

Meetings have become a necessary evil for many organizations, with both management and staff grinding their teeth until the agenda is complete and they can get back to their other tasks. This attitude towards meetings can quickly drain staff of morale and productivity. However, as Fast Company explores through interviewing some of the most successful managerial minds today, meetings can also be a source of inspiration and creativity if approached correctly.

When faced with introducing a new product or service at a meeting, best-selling author Guy Kawasaki suggests, pretend that your efforts have failed. Kawasaki told Fast Company to "conduct a pre-mortem so that you never have to conduct a post-mortem." Go over anything that could go wrong in order to be prepared in case the worst does happen. Getting staff to think creatively and in the habit of solving problems before they happen can benefit organizations of all types.

Richard Branson, the famously eccentric founder of Virgin, believed in breaking the norm in order to unlock creativity and new ways of thinking. He gained attention for bringing in speakers who were famous for their work in fields such as astronomy and nanotechnology. Their work did not particularly pertain to his business practices, but he believed these professionals would inspire innovation and creative thinking in his staff.

Branson is also a firm supporter of avoiding complacency. He told Fast Company that a "change of scenery and a bit of fun does wonders for getting people thinking differently and loosening up!" To keep things from growing stale at your organization, try hosting your next meeting at On Point Executive Center's waterfront Tampa meeting rooms. With On Point's experienced staff taking care of the setting, your team will be better able to focus on the issues at hand.