It’s no secret a lot of us hate meetings. According to the National Statistics Council, 37% of employee time is spent in meetings, and 47% of employees consider too many meetings to be the biggest waste of time during the day–more than social media or email.

Some innovative leaders have found ways to make meetings a little more bearable as well as productive. Take a look at what these 12 companies do to boost the effectiveness of the dreaded meeting.

THEY MAKE THEM MEMORABLE

Employees of TINYpulse, an employee engagement software provider, rarely forget a meeting because the company starts them at an odd time. The company’s daily staff meeting, for example, starts at 8:48 a.m.

“It’s eliminated tardiness almost completely,” says communications manager Neal McNamara. “It’s strange, but at 8:48, everyone in our office seems to rise simultaneously and move toward our meeting area. There’s definitely a Pavlovian aspect to the odd meeting time.”

Every Thursday, baby food manufacturer Plum Organics gets out coloring books and holds a creative-thinking meeting where staff members color, talk, and decompress. Innovation director Jen Brush says the hour has been extremely important to the company’s new product development.

“It’s proven that coloring during a meeting helps promote active listening, and is more beneficial than multitasking on something like email,” she says.

Using a technique called “connection before content,” the leader poses a question at the start of a meeting designed to get people out of their comfort zones. For example, “What are your doubts about something you’re working on?” The exercise has been so effective that the company shared the idea with its customers.

Josh Neblett, cofounder and CEO of the e-commerce company Etailz, uses the last 10 minutes of his company meetings for Q&A. If no one has a question, the remaining time turns into a stare-off.

“All managers claim they have an open-door policy; my experience is that sounds good and may make you feel good about yourself, but unless you engage employees, the reality is the vast majority are not going to take advantage,” says Neblett. “This mindset is true in group settings, as well.

If no one has questions initially, I’ll just look around and stare at people awkwardly until the first couple of questions come out. The questions always end up being useful and universally applicable, but sometimes it takes a couple minutes for the dam to break.”.