What’s the Point? Making Meetings Matter

Find creative gold in every meeting for engagement and disruption.

Is it too early to wake up from the summer haze and start talking creative meeting strategy?

I had the opportunity to speak about effective meetings at the National Association of Healthcare Recruiting conference and I wanted to share some of my tips with you 🤗.

First, enjoy some of the highlights from my trip to Austin!

What Makes an Effective Meeting?

Some might say a meeting that never happened in the first place. But seriously… 

If you are meeting up with your colleagues IRL (in real life):

• You want to make it count
• You want to hear from everyone at the meeting (why else are they there?)
• You want meetings to be worth your time, with results and engagement like a stock photo of a conference room full of high-fives.

If you want to avoid obsolescence, you need innovation. Innovation requires creativity. 

But here is the hurdle you have to jump in the Olympic sprint to a useful and creative meeting:

ONLY 18% of employees feel they can take risks at work to be creative.

But why? HOW do you get the creative nectar from their beautiful minds!?

The first place to start is with ground rules for a creative meeting.

No side conversations. No interrupting. 

The first thing in a meeting should be introductions, or allowing everyone to speak.

It can be a fun activity like ‘what vegetable are you’, but personally, I prefer icebreakers that relate to the business question.

There are two reasons for this:

1. Speak at the beginning, and it sets the expectation and tone

In the book by Atal Gawunde, The Checklist Manifesto, Dr. Gawande notes an interesting side effect when everyone speaks at the beginning of surgery. They are more likely to speak out if they see something happening that needs to be called out.

The same rule can apply to meetings: giving everyone the space to speak at the beginning sets the expectation that everyone will be heard.

2. Every layer of an agenda can be intentional, including the icebreaker

To get people talking (even the quiet one who you wish would speak up), try this!

Need to upstart creativity?

Use a forced connection. Give each person a random item, or tell them to bring a random item. Ask them how the item relates to a business question, what does it have in common, and what properties do they share.

Divergent vs. Convergent Thinking

After breaking the ice – we can get into the meat and potatoes of effective idea development.

When developing ideas, the first rule of creativity is to separate

• idea generation (divergent thinking)
• idea evaluation (convergent thinking).

Make a safe place and use intentional activities to diverge. Go for quantity over quality. There are no bad ideas at this stage. Really bad ideas can spark the amazing idea that changes everything.

Separating divergent and convergent thinking moves the creative needle faster than any other technique I have seen. Although it is easier said than done.

Stop editing your own ideas, and don’t allow others to criticize ideas as they are generated.

Use the improv “yes, and” to expand on ideas. Even the ones you think are coo coo bananas!

Ambiguity is Essential to Creativity

Leaders are especially prone to a bias against creativity. Something to do with their butt and a line?

But in certainty, there is no creativity. It’s time to get used to the unknown.

Leaders as well as team members need to practice facing ambiguity. 

Start with small initiatives, allow team members to take ownership of small projects, and see what they can do. Not only will they find a better way to do something, and save money, they will feel invested and engaged, their contribution making a difference.

Employees who use their creativity are half as likely to be looking for a new job, and teams who create together have better cohesion and results!

For more on divergent and convergent thinking and how to put them into practice, check out this handout I made for the conference –

That’s right, I decided to share allll the divergent and convergent thinking activities (even if you weren’t there) for free!

Please share any feedback or questions to hello@carolinebrookfield.com if you decide to try the techniques from the handout – I would love to hear from you!

---

In Other News…

Creative Lifescaping with Donald M. Rattner

Does your workspace spark joy?

Is your home a beacon for imagination and discovery?

If you are looking to amplify the creativity in your physical space, you are going to want to watch this!

Donald M. Rattner, author of My Creative Space joins me on this past episode of Creative Lifescaping to help you engineer your world for more creativity

Ingenious Thinkers | Episode 90: Reluctant Creativity

Listen to the Spyderworks Ingenious Thinkers podcast for more on how to face ambiguity with confidence, creating psychological safety at work, and more.