BY JULIA PAULUS, STAFF WRITER

Every morning, David Brown, president of St. Louis-based information technology firm Datotel, holds a 10- to 15-minute senior leadership meeting he describes as “adrenaline calls.” During these meetings he and his team quickly go over immediate tasks, customer feedback, sales numbers and operational issues.

“The leadership team communicates and reinforces objectives and goals for our employees,” says Brown. “Daily meetings keep everyone on the same page and help remove ‘stuck points.’ This helps us increase our response time and flexibility.”

He notes that the daily meetings are not supposed to involve any problem solving, which helps participants stay on task. The meetings simply raise awareness of what is going on in the company. “Any problem solving that arises out of those calls is scheduled and conducted separately with only the folks that need to be present to work out the issue,” says Brown.

He conducts longer strategic meetings once a quarter to keep everyone on the same page when it comes to what the firm is doing and why. To keep his employees’ attention during these longer meetings, Brown incorporates themes.

“Recently, to convey a message and business goal, we had a meeting in which the entire leadership team played out the Charlie (Kelly McGillis) hangar scene from ‘Top Gun,’” says Brown. “We rented a hangar at St. Louis Downtown Airport. The leadership team dressed in flight suits and tried to use lines from the movie wherever appropriate. We then introduced a sales system involving themes from the movie. For instance, we dubbed a sales lead as a ‘win’ and closing a lead into a sale a ‘kill.’ The teams with the most wins and kills were then awarded ‘Top Gun’-themed prizes.”

Although this may be an extreme example of keeping employees interested during meetings, Brown also uses creative tactics on a smaller scale. “We recommend trying to use all the senses to reinforce the point or objective you are trying to achieve,” he says.  “Normally, the more you play to all the senses, the more engaged and memorable the meeting will be.”

Don “The Idea Guy” Snyder, author of “Boring Meetings Suck” and “100-Whats of Creativity,” suggests similar tactics for engaging employees in business meetings. “The easiest way to liven up a business meeting is to hold a brief gathering toward the end of the business day, make it high-energy and humorous, end it ahead of schedule, and let the troops go home early,” he says.

Snyder says creative meetings and awards can spark interest. “Money is always nice,” he says. “Have a stack of sealed envelopes at the front of the room and hand them out as people enter, instructing them not to open it until they’re told during the presentation. You’ve aroused their curiosity about what’s in the envelope, and they’re now on the edge of their seats waiting for the queue to open this mysterious envelope. Wait until the end of the meeting and give the OK to tear open the envelopes. A few crisp $20 bills or gift certificates to a mall, bookstore or restaurant will guarantee a full house for your next gathering. They will ask you when the next meeting is scheduled.”

In “Boring Meetings Suck,” Snyder and co-author Jon Petz list “MSRDs,” or “Meeting Suckification Reduction Devices,” one of which is to get people interested before they even walk in the door. “Appeal to the audience’s needs instead of the needs of the manager or those of the company,” says Snyder. “Commercials for the next big blockbuster movie don’t invite people to see the film by telling them how many seats in the theater need to be filled or how they’re falling short of their target budget for this fiscal year in concession sales. It promises thrills and chills: car chases, romance, danger, adventure and explosions.

“Instead of telling the troops they need to attend the annual HR meeting about their ever-changing 401(k) programs (a requirement that fulfills a company obligation), why not tell them what it’s really about?” says Snyder. “The company is giving away free money just for showing up every day, and we want to know if you want any of it. Show up in the large conference room at 3 p.m., and put your name on the list.”

Time and focus can both easily slip away in meetings. Snyder says that avoiding wasting time during meetings should be the No. 1 priority. “The audience’s time is the most valuable nonrenewable resource they have,” he says. “Keep in mind that once you burn an hour, you can never get it back. Multiply that hour by the number of people in the room bored out of their minds, and multiply that number by how much your company pays them to be at work for those hours, and then multiply that by the number of meetings you have in a week/month/year, and then add in all the work lost or delayed by the time they’ve spent staring at pointless PowerPoint presentations, and you’ll begin to realize just how quickly boring meetings suck the time, energy, creativity and money out of your organization.”