Dear Creative friends,
Hello again.
Please send me any comments
or suggestions that you have.
Pleasant reading,
Amir
In this issue:
(a) Announcements
(b) Creative ideas
for...
(c) Creative tool - 6 Thinking Hats
(d) New on Best100Ideas
(e) Recommendation of the month
(a) New Beginnings!
The past few weeks have meant several new beginning for me. First and foremost - we now have a new daughter! After two boys - this should prove a new experience indeed!
I am also about to begin a new job as a training manager in a large global firm.
I also started up a new collaborative ideas project. You can read more details about it at the New on Best100Ideas section below or simply jump straight to the Best Creative Ideas Collaborative Project and start to share and discuss new creative ideas.
I wish all you readers good beginnings and best wishes for 2008!
yours
truly,
Amir
(b)
Creative Ideas for Meeting Management
Meetings are one of the most common and basic events in business and social organizations. However, too often they do not provide the value they could have.
Often meetings are seen as time-wasters. There are basic ways to improve meeting management and effectiveness - such as clear goal setting at the beginning, a certain meeting structure, various ways for effective decision-making, and meeting follow-up techniques.
In this section I will offer other ideas for making your meetings more effective. Although some of these ideas may seem difficult to implement at first, if you stick to them - they may drastically improve the value of your meetings.
- "Three Sentences Meetings": Set a rule for a specific type of meetings in which each participant may say only three sentences during the entire meeting. This would make people concentrate on the most important messages they feel most strongly about in the meeting. A Three Sentence Meeting would be short and to the point. You should send required data or a list of major issues in advance, thus allowing people to express their major insights, reservations, suggestions and positions in those three sentences.
- "Off the Record Meetings": Sometimes, people will refrain from expressing their real opinions in a meeting since they are wary of what other participants might think of the ideas or how others may use what they say against them later. If in a certain point of time it is really important for you that people say exactly what they think, set up an "Off the record" meeting - and make sure that all participants agree that things said in the meeting will never leave the room and will never be used against anyone. Set up a strict policy and model so that this promise is kept.
- "Split Meetings": Split the meeting into 2 or more parts. The split may be used in different ways. You may lay out facts in the first part, then give people several moments to consider the data, and get back to make a decision. A different option is to switch the "mood" or mode in the different parts of the meeting - one part of the meeting would be in a more cautios mode, another would be in a more daring and innovative mode, and a third in a more practical and operational mode, etc.
- "Unexpected Meeting": Once in a while make a surprise meeting. Go around the offices, inviting random people you meet to join you, and start a meeting. The subjects for the meeting will be raised and developed by the random group of participants. This type of meeting would require you to be open to hearing and discussing new ideas or various problems, as well as be able to manage a group of people you don't usually work with. However, it is a great chance to offer a setting for creative thinkning, as well as a chance to hear what different peole have to say about various things that are going on around them.
(c) Creative Tool: DeBono's Six Thinking Hats
Edward DeBono's
Six Thinking Hats is one of my favorite thinking hats, and I especially like using it as a creativity tool. It is a powerful and flexible tool, and there are numerous ways you may use it. Below I suggest one way for using the six hats tool as a creativity booster. You may also like to read my article on The Six Hats of Creative Communication to see a detailed example of using this tool.
The Six Thinking Hats is a method devised by Edward DeBono and meant to improve the results of thinking and discussion. The hats represent six different types of thinking and each hat is marked with a distinct color.
- White Hat: represents facts, information, and statistical data, as well as identifying missing information and from which sources it may be collected.
- Red Hat: symbolizes emotions and feelings. While wearing this hat, people are "allowed" to express their feelings about the subject or to share their general mood, which might be affecting their participation or lack of it. This hat does not require logical reasoning or justification, as feelings are almost always subjective rather then rational.
- Yellow Hat: signifies positive rationality, and is used to look at the positive aspects of a situation or idea, on the potential benefits of the suggested course of action, and on the parties who are expected to profit from it. It is emphasized that support for the idea should be logically justified and not simply stated without explanation.
- Black Hat: is in a way the opposite of the Yellow Hat. It is used for discussing the negative repercussions of the plan, the potential dangers, and any criticism on the logic of arguments made in its support. As in the case of the positive hat, logical justification is expected when presenting the reservations rather than opposition for the mere sake of opposition.
- Green Hat: stands for creativity and unconventional thinking. When wearing this hat, people are encouraged to think creatively (although in this case De Bono does not specify how). Brainstorming, creative thinking tools, lateral thinking and other such methods are to be used in order to search for unexpected developments of the idea or the discussion.
- Blue Hat: is used for directing the discussion, for switching hats when necessary, for summarizing the major points of the discussion, as well as for making decisions.
You may use this tool in different ways for boosting creativity. For instance:
- Hand out people different hats in different days of the week - to focus their thinking and direct it in other directions each time.
- In meeting management - set 5 minutes for each hat and switch between thinking modes using the hats.
- Give different groups (of employees, of students, of friends) different roles as represented by the hats - e.g. a group of people would be in charge of facts and statistics, another group of positive rational thinking, etc. You may later switch roles between groups.
I have just started up a new virtual place where we can all share and collaborate with creative ideas. I need your help in order to make it a thriving place for creative ideas. It is the Best Creative Ideas Collaborative Project or Wiki.
I intend for it to be a place for all of you to post creative ideas of all kinds, and for the entire community to suggest more and more ideas. To begin, I thought we should discuss and decide on some important basic issues on the structure and usage of this resource. It is very important that you provide your view and suggestions at this stage as it will determine the nature of this community in the long term. All you have to do is join the Wiki (absolutley free, of course), and post your opinion on the initial issues that I raised - and even suggest new issues we should resolve. Later we can move on to building this resource of creative ideas and expanding it without limit!
ZOOZ is a Strategy, Marketing and Innovation consulting firm I used to work at. Its website has a wealth of resources related to innovation. You can find articles on New Product Development tools, Innovation Strategy, Innovation Case Studies, and a very intersting Stratgey and Innovation Newsletter. Also - check out the recommended readings section for great books on these subjects and more.
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