We have all been there: Stuck in a windowless meeting room, fighting to keep awake, surreptitiously checking our e-mails, letting the imagination roam behind half-closed eyes and lips tightly pursed to judiciously steepled hands, or even thinking about lunch, or plans for the evening, or making mental lists.
So I was intrigued to read the other day that two in five bored business travelers spend meetings daydreaming about holidays; one third fall asleep during ‘especially dreary meetings,’ with 35 percent often ‘catching themselves on the brink of dropping off;’ while 83 percent treat meetings ‘like a long telephone call with a relative – only paying attention for the first half, when they can expect to hear ‘all the bits worth knowing.’
These are the ‘shocking’ conclusions of a poll of 1,207 British business travelers by Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts.
Tactics for staying awake include doodling (59 percent) and ‘fiddling’ (52 percent); and ‘playing with a pen when the mind wanders off the topic’ (33 percent). More than half the respondents said that ‘looking out of window is their biggest distraction;’ 73 percent admitted ‘they’ll pay no attention if a person conducting the meeting has a monotonous voice.’
Crowne Plaza promises an end to boring meetings with the ‘Think Box’ designed by Roger von Oech, a California-based ‘creativity consultant,’ known for his book, ‘A Whack on the Side of the Head.’
The Think Box (of brushed aluminum about 18 inches by 14 inches by 8 inches) is the latest gimmick in Crowne Plaza’s ‘Think Tank’ campaign to stimulate business guests with tools and tips from ‘innovators and visionary thinkers.’ Boxes will be distributed in hotels across Europe and Middle East.
Think Boxes contain three items designed to overcome three key hurdles that Von Oech claims beset meetings. They are: Loss of focus; lack of creativity; and achieving meeting goals.
-The Inspire Boards use brain teasers to help get people focused at the start of meetings and stimulate creative energy activity.
-The Ball of Whacks, a rhombic triacontahedron puzzle made up of 30 detachable magnetic blocks, is a ‘tactile tool to release nervous energy, prevent distraction and to reinvigorate creativity during a meeting.’
‘The Ball can be taken apart and manipulated into a lot of different shapes,’ von Oech says. ‘Using your hands and eyes together stimulates the brain.’ (Squeezing the Ball in your hand and showering your neighbors with magnetic shards is certainly a great way to break the ice!)
-The Think Cards contain 32 of von Oech’s strategies for creative thinking and to get a new perspective on an issue. One card says, ‘Avoid arrogance;’ others say, ‘Laugh at it;’ ‘Drop an assumption;’ ‘Slay a sacred cow.’ ‘Picking cards at random can get you off thinking in other directions,’ von Oech says. What you might call, thinking outside the box.
‘Meeting planners typically look at the technical needs for the meeting, such as space, catering and audiovisual needs,’ von Oech says. ‘But not enough attention has been given to how you energize the thinking of people in the meeting, and to spark their creativity.’
The Think Box might be great for brainstorming; but I can think of meetings where using it would be unthinkable. Surely it depends on the type of meeting?
‘Absolutely not,’ Von Oech says. ‘There are three or four different types of meeting; some where you’re just disseminating information; others where you trying to come to a consensus; making a decision; then some where you’re trying to come up with ideas – to the extreme of a brainstorming session. Some of the products can be used for a stepping-off point, or as an ice-breaker. People are more engaged, participatory, rather than being lectured at, or power-pointed to death.’
After a short meeting with myself I’ve decided to go on thinking without the box.
International Herald Tribune 2008