7 Tips for Transforming Your Town Hall

Build a Thriving Corporate Culture with a Town Hall

September 11, 2019

Holding a Town Hall can be a powerful tool for unifying your team. Additionally, Town Halls can help employees get aligned with corporate values and as a result, nurture a culture that is invested in your organization’s success. A regular Town Hall meeting offers an opportunity to share the vision for the company as you grow, disseminate important information or polices, and allow employees to ask questions or voice concerns.

Whether you are using Town Hall as a feedback opportunity or as an effective way to get everyone aligned with corporate goals, there is a lot to be gained. In truth, the possibilities are limitless and the event itself can be tailored to fit the needs, interests, and requests of your team. The key is to remember that this should be edifying for your audience- they are the focus of the event. If you’re ready to kick your Town Hall into high gear (and out of boring lecture territory) then consider the following tips for hosting an engaging, and effective Town Hall Meeting:

WHY HOLD A TOWN HALL?

A Town Hall allows you to get a pulse on your organization’s culture. It allows leadership to be visible and to re-enforce culture and values to the team. Sure, it’s great to have a forum for sharing important updates, but at its core, a Town Hall is a chance to inspire collaboration, promote alignment, and build up team morale.

7 Tips for an Effective Town Hall

Incorporate the Senses – Whether it’s including dynamic visuals, energizing music, or offering a filling snack, remember that Town Halls can be about more than listening. Not everyone is an auditory learner, so including video, infographics, and live demonstrations can make a huge difference in what people retain from the event. If people leave feeling the content of your Town Hall could have been better announced via email you’ve missed a great opportunity to get people excited about what you have to share.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Fun – Start or end your Town Hall with a game or icebreaker like name-that-tune or pop culture trivia. Prizes or giveaways make these activities even more exciting! They don’t have to be expensive, but giveaways of company swag or other fun items are always well received. A great icebreaker can set the tone for the event and capture people’s attention for the later, more informative parts of the session.

How to Infuse Fun into Town Hall

If you’re looking to start incorporating some more dynamic activities into your Town Hall event, consider some of the ideas DOMA has successfully incorporated in the past:

Setup a Selfie Station with Frames and Props for after the Event
Giveaway T-Shirts or a Fun Branded Product to Everyone who Attends
Auction off a Reserved Parking Space for Charity
Host an HR Dress Code Fashion Show to show acceptable and unacceptable dress
Invite Food Trucks to your Office on Town Hall Day so employees can pick up a delicious lunch before/after the meeting

Honor Your Employees – Speaking of prizes, Town Hall is the perfect time to announce awards like Employee of the Month or offer accolades for a job well done. Celebrating the team as a group should be a Town Hall priority.
Make it Interactive – Consider using live, interactive presentation software like Mentimeter or Poll Everywhere to allow employees to vote, play trivia games, or ask questions from their mobile devices during the presentation. Results update live in the presentation allowing for immediate feedback from the presenter. People can be shy about speaking up in a crowd but may be more receptive to texting in their questions or concerns. A moderator can screen questions from their device and leadership can address them in real-time.
Mix it up – Bring a fresh perspective, theme, or focus to each Town Hall. Don’t be afraid to change the seating arrangement, invite a surprise guest speaker, or try a new presentation format. If you keep people guessing it builds excitement for the next event and ensures there is something for everyone to enjoy.
Get Everyone Involved – Encourage different departments to handle different sections of Town Hall and try to incorporate multiple speakers. Let each department share its own successes, goals, and initiatives. This allows people to enjoy a variety of different perspectives and presentation styles. You can reign in any long-winded participants by including an MC to host or run the event or keeping people to timed blocks.
Don’t Cram in Everything – If you have seven goals for the new year, don’t try to cover them in depth all at once. Let each Town Hall have a central focus or theme and instead get deep into that one topic. Likewise, there is no need to incorporate tons of different games and prizes into one event. If you keep your Town Hall to 45-minutes or less and stay on topic it’s more likely the audience will walk away with a clear picture of what you wanted them to learn.

HOW DOMA DOES TOWN HALL

Town Hall is something we prioritize at DOMA. We use the event as a chance to honor our employees and bring a little bit of fun into the workday, but Town Hall can also be a wonderful litmus test for the success of current culture initiatives.

DOMA’s approach to culture in 2019 is has been to be as inclusive as possible and to make avenues for everyone to participate. This means ensuring that there is a variety of different types of fun, charitable, and personal development activities at different times of day and of different lengths to accommodate everyone’s schedule. For DOMA Town Hall has been a great testing ground for new initiatives and an excellent forum for reciving feedback on what’s working, and where there is an opportunity for growth.

To learn more about DOMA’s Culture and see how our three committees are making a difference at DOMA check out our Culture Page.

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About DOMA- Powered by Tech, Driven by People

DOMA Technologies (DOMA) is a software development and digital transformation company whose mission is to change customer lives by lightening their workload through faster and more targeted access to their data. Since 2000, our team of 200+ experts has helped businesses navigate all aspects of the digital world. We are a dedicated strategic partner for the federal government and private sector clients at every stage of their unique digital transformation journey.