5 Creative Steps To Make Meetings More Productive

Commit to designing curiosity, movement and democracy into your meetings - your team will thank you!

There’s a great divide between business and productivity. These days it’s possible to rush busily from back-to-back meetings all day, and not feel like you’ve achieved anything productive.

Until we figure out new ways of transforming ‘being busy’ into ‘productivity’, here are some ideas to facilitate dynamic meetings.? Note that the word facilitate means "to make easy".? Here are some ways to make it simple for people to get their best ideas out, be productive, feel validated and be energized by the end of a meeting session.?

Frame The Right Questions?

We’ve all been part of meetings that really should have been an email. So, if you've called a meeting, don't just wing it. This may seem obvious, but identify why you are having the meeting in the first place and communicate that to everyone attending.?

Generate key questions in advance, so you can lead with inquiry, stimulating people in the room to talk and harmonize their ideas.?

The Institute of Cultural Affairs' Technology of Participation has a few methods for making meetings more productive, including:

• Identifying what a successful outcome from the meeting will look like;
• Defining the current situation and stating what each person will contribute and deliver;
• Outlining the key tasks or steps to be completed, and put them on a timeline;
• Finally, confirming the group’s plan and everyone’s level of commitment to making it happen.

Quietstorm

If you have ever asked a question in-front of a group, you’re most likely familiar with the awkward silence as people rapidly think of answers or look around to see who will talk first. Typically in these situations, we hear more often from the same people - Those who are confident enough to call out.

Quietstorming is a more democratic process.? In response to a question, give people a few minutes to generate ideas on their own, in silence, and then move on to sharing the ideas in small teams.? This reduces the opportunities for extroverts to dominate a conversation.

Think on Your Feet

I mean this literally. For decades, sections of the US Navy have held standing meetings. Walking meetings are becoming more popular. The spine is an extension of the brain and adding motion to thinking increases blood flow and therefore oxygen to the brain. Neuro-synapses become more dynamic. Basically, sedentary meetings can lead to sedentary ideas and ways of thinking, so it’s time to get moving.

Simply standing around a table instead of sitting is one technique to keep regular update meetings short and energized. For more creative brainstorming meetings, ask people to stick Post-It note ideas on the walls or write on whiteboards. If you’re bouncing ideas with a partner, take a walk around the block and record the conversation on your phone.

Standing and moving ensures that work gets done in energized spurts.

Visualize Your Creativity

We are hardwired to be visual creatures. Our brains are constantly analyzing our surroundings for shapes and patterns, which at our core, is connected to the fight/flight response generated in our hypothalamus.???

In your next meeting, ask your team to communicate complex information through doodles.? Visualizing ideas has very little to do with your ability to draw and everything to do with your capacity for abstract, complex thinking.? Even in a work culture where quantitative data is valued, try starting with doodling to get the big picture for topline summaries, and then supporting major ideas with the quantitative details.

Flip the Expert

Rotate who leads meetings.? In advance, ask someone junior in the team, newer to the team, or from a different department to facilitate the meeting.? This can open your team to new perspectives or ways of thinking.

Another way to switch up meetings is to bring in an external expert facilitator. Who do you know in your professional, client or supplier networks who could offer their insights? In addition to introducing new ideas, bringing in an external expert frees up senior leaders to be true participants and can equalize everyone involved.

Use Wonder and Rigor

Experiment with these ideas for your next series of meetings and witness a new level of energy and dynamism from your team.?

True creative thinking and ideas don’t just happen. I’ll admit that inspiration can strike randomly, but I wouldn’t advise sitting around and waiting for that magical moment to happen. You can harness creativity by using a framework of wonder and rigor.

???Click here to get more of Natalie’s scintillating creativity tips!