Surviving boring meetings: think about football, food or underwear
The UK guardian, reports that business meetings in the UK have become so boring that most participants totally mentally check out.
However apparently this has an "up-side" as it stimulates the participants creative thinking – a bit like being in the shower or out on a long walk!
Apparently doodling has been overtaken by a range of ingenious games, including:
- Office Bingo - a form of bingo based on predictable phrases in presentations
- Thinking about Football (mostly men)
- Pondering the dress sense of colleagues
The advice offered includes banning participants from using blackberries and texting and making them change seats regularly.
Apparently actually trying to make the meetings interesting, useful and well run is considered too stupid to even suggest!
However if you have not given up on meetings altogether you could check out my Fifteen great techniques for teams for a few pointers.
Meeting checklists and support tools are great but don't forget no matter how well a meeting is run it won't be a good one if the participants did not want to be there in the first place.
Tags: meetings
Bioteams Books Reviews
Organisational teams: thin slice for responsiveness

Humans and animals do not need complete information to act; they can operate on various clues provided there is a sufficient context. Organizational teams can also use this thin slicing technique in conjunction with short messaging to enhance their performance. Malcolm Gladwell’s introspective book Blink digs deep into the abyss of human cognition to illustrate the human ability to think at a subconscious level. The idea of thin slicing is used where one is introduced to only a few snippets of information which lead to a series of conclusions based on moments of rapid cognition – an ability claimed to be intrinsically dormant in most humans. By bioteams guest author Max Bhanabhai.
Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK
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