Holding standing meetings can help reduce wasted time and increase productivity. Not only will time be saved, but members of the meeting are usually more engaged, which increases the positive results of the meeting. Standing meetings might not work for everyone – it’s important to be inclusive in workplaces and acknowledge that this option might not work for everyone, but overall, it’s a unique and helpful way to have meetings.
Read below to see more details on why standing meetings are going to be more popular in the future:
1. Keeps attendees alert
It’s easy to lose focus and interest when you’re slumped in a chair and staring at a screen or a wall for an hour. But if you’re standing, your body and brain are automatically on alert and you are ready to absorb the information faster and more thoroughly. We all know that holding focus during long meetings can be difficult for many managers and employers, so giving people the option to stand, especially if they’ve been sitting all day, can really improve their level of alertness.
2. Supports creative thinking
There’s a reason why people say standing desks improve their creative thinking. Standing during a meeting means you’re moving around more and boosting your creativity. It promotes problem-solving and thinking outside the box because you’re literally training your brain to get used to a new way of working. By encouraging employees to stand during meetings, you can support their problem-solving skills and help them streamline their thought processes.
3. Usually are more focused and end quicker
We all know the joke: “This meeting could have been an email.” Well, with standing meetings, that sentiment can be further resolved. Instead of long, drawn-out meetings where team members leave feeling drained and burned out, standing meetings make people more focused and more likely to end the meeting faster and with all topics covered. That is because of the other bullet points on this list, and also because going back to work and sitting might be viewed as a “reward” for standing for a meeting. The break you take before starting more reps in your workout. Try standing meetings and compare the time to sitting ones – you may find that the standing meetings are far quicker without sacrificing quality.
4. Encourages collaboration and participation
There is a more collaborative feel to standing meetings than sitting ones. It is slightly less formal, so there’s less pressure and fear of people speaking up. It also encourages participation because it feels more like a conversation rather than a presentation by one person. (If the meeting is a presentation by one person, standing meetings can still facilitate better discussion and questions at the end of the meeting.) Some of the heavy-handed traditionalism is diluted when you allow people to use standing meetings.
NOTE: It’s important to also recognize that standing meetings might not be accessible for everyone, especially those who have physical limitations or disabilities. Therefore, it’s important to make sure that if you do implement standing meetings, they are not mandatory, but rather optional for all employees.
