How can you make people more creative in meetings?

“When information is presented in brain friendly ways, learners feel good, excel in learning, remember more and are fired up to take the next step” Eric Jensen, trainer, in “Sizzle and Substance”

Would you like your meetings to have a more creative output?  Read on…

One valuable concept I learned on a lengthy, part time training programme with Kaizen Training was the “5 Brain Friendly Learning” Principles (as opposed to the “Brain Fried” Principles adopted at my school).
These BFL principles are:

STATE IS EVERYTHING (WELL ALMOST); HONOUR UNIQUENESS; MAKE IT RICH AND MULTI SENSORY; FACILITATE CREATION NOT CONSUMPTION; KEEP IT REAL
On closer inspection, I realised I had been using aspects of each principle for a long time when facilitating meetings. So if you substitute “Meeting” for “Learning” in the description, might the principles help you make your meetings even more creative and productive?

Here are the “5 Brain Friendly Meeting” principles, with a few ideas that I have used in meetings, to illustrate how to apply them. More importantly, I trust these will spark your own ideas.

• STATE IS EVERYTHING:  By changing the focus and / or the physiology of participants, you can create the most appropriate state for them. Some ways you can do this in meetings are: Play calming or energising music; Create a stimulating environment, perhaps put laminated pictures on the wall (e.g. beautiful places and smiling children); Have people go for a walk to discuss a key point; Use appropriate energisers (for a copy of a published article on this, please click here for our website;) Make sure there is plenty of water to drink.
• HONOUR UNIQUENESS: Howard Gardner considers that there are eight types of intelligence: visual / spatial; musical /rhythmic; intra and interpersonal; logical/mathematical; naturalist; body/kinaesthetic; verbal/linguistic. People vary in their levels and preference for each. When you design a meeting, you should consider appealing to the different intelligences: Use mind maps; Reinforce key points with sound; Give time for reflection; Have people work in small groups; Present checklists; Ensure natural light; Have flexible seating; Conduct live interviews with poor presenters; Provide short readings.
• MAKE IT RICH AND MULTI SENSORY:  Have you ever left a meeting with no real memory of what was presented or discussed?   The brain stores information in different memory areas. There’s overlap with “Uniqueness” here, but to help memory retention, deliver your information in a multi sensory way: Use physical models; Relate new ideas to existing ones; Use metaphors and analogies; Give people an exercise to complete; Have pairs quiz each other on the topic you have just covered; Have individuals state the three key points (e.g. of the strategy) they have just developed.
• FACILITATE CREATION NOT CONSUMPTION:  When are you more involved, when listening passively or when developing your own ideas? Have people: Draw rich pictures to explain a difficult situation; Draught mind maps; or develop a model to illustrate their conclusions; Develop a presentation of the annual business plan they have developed; Act out a process; Get small groups to research a topic on the Internet and then present a summary.
• KEEP IT REAL: Before a meeting, follow a process to ensure it is productive (if you would like a copy of a published article on this topic, please click here for our website). During the meeting, you can ensure that people have a set of clear actions. After the meeting, you can produce a set of clear, punchy notes that people want to read and that give them the information they need.

So you might conclude that these principles make meetings into a learning event rather than a decision making or information sharing forum. Is that such a bad thing? Wouldn’t it be great if you could make people in your organisation look forward to your meetings because they gain learning, create ideas and have fun? Wouldn’t that make you a bit of a hero?

Action
Consider one meeting you have coming up soon, judge how you might apply one of the principles to it and apply it. It might be a meeting you are running, or it might be one where you have to provide information. Whatever, try it and see what happens.

To Close
You might also like to read Creative Gorilla 99 which outlines my own principles for more creative meetings.

John Brooker I Loving Creativity in Business