When is it appropriate to hold “stand up” meetings, that is, meetings where no chairs are provided? When you want short, focused meetings where attendees report on what they’re doing. It is not the way to get creative thinking! Read more →

Arrange your meeting room to enhance your objectives. If you seek creative thinking, then don’t sit people at a boardroom table. That’s a good arrangement for analytical thinking. Instead, try a casual living-room style with couches and comfortable chairs. Read more →

Everyone has attended brainstorming meetings. Here are the essential guidelines that will make your brainstorming more productive. Read more →

What is the optimal layout for a room when the meeting is intended to generate creative ideas? Experience tells me that a “living room” setup is best. There are other key elements that can help or hurt the innovation factor, too! Read more →

When the objective is to generate creative ideas in a brainstorming context, an enormous help is to have participants representing diverse backgrounds, expertise, and experience. Read more →

A way to encourage full participation in a meeting is to allow individual contributors to get their ideas on a notepad first and then offered to the full group: Nominal Group Technique Read more →