January 2007 - The Meetings Jungle

Here's an interesting technique on helping to make meetings more productive which starts with a trip to the toyshop!

First go and buy a toy Elephant, Crocodile, Chameleon and Smiley face ball.

Now in your next meeting you can use these tools as follows.

Give them to the chairperson to hand out as appropriate for a pre determined time (10 minutes is a good starter).

- When someone has the Smiley face they must maintain a positive stance and seek to find ways to agree with what is being discussed.

- If you have the crocodile you must take a contrary stance and challenge what is being proposed – look for the weaknesses in any of the arguments.

- If you have the chameleon you must look for alternative suggestions or points of view – explore the value of change

- And finally, if you have the elephant you must use those big ears to listen, but remain silent for the entire period that you have the elephant.

If you use these animals wisely you can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your meetings and force participants to see and consider things from a different perspective.