How do you get people to talk in a meeting My staff just sits there like they want to die?

Nobody likes having to attend meetings. Usually, it's just the same old stuff. If you want to get them involved, have a meeting to discuss light topics. Like, a holiday party or Casual Fridays. Even if you plan to discuss customer service, give them something else to talk about or, consider having fewer meetings. People don't like to speak up during meetings. What can they say? "Oh, Mr. Brown that's an Excellent idea." That makes them look like they are brown-nosing the boss. Other employees might not approve of that. Employees are very much aware of peer-pressure. No one wants to stand out in a crowd. ___________________ Stop scheduling meetings. I know it sounds odd, but if the meetings are not productive and the staff clearly hate them, why bother? I worked with one firm whose meetings I didn't attend, because they were so pointless and boring. Partners spoke to me about this and I asked them to send me an agenda so I could work from there. Never happened, and I enjoyed Croissants and coffee while the other professional staff sat staring into space, wanting to die. A firm I once worked with decided to allow staff to finish work half an hour early on a Friday. The catch was, they couldn't leave the premises: they could keep working till knock-off time, or shut down and come to the boardroom, to take their pick of half an hours' worth of good cheeses, crackers, champagne, and anything else they cared to enjoy. Beer and spirits were available, and nobody took notes of who had what. It was brilliant: a good and friendly time, and invariably involved discussion of the week's work. A new practice manager, in the absence of the senior partner and furious at the notion juniors were permitted to enter the boardroom, tried to curtail the end-of-week happy hour; the fury of the partner on his return was incandescent, and we all went back to the boardroom of a Friday. It worked. Try it; you just need to be careful it doesn't get out of hand...a firm lights-out time of, say, six pm, works well.