Russ Schoen

Meetings: are they a waste of your time?

Russ Schoen — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:14:25 +0000

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.
– Dave Barry, “Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn”

I love the quote above! Maybe because in our innovation workshops, I’ll often ask participants, "who has been in a meeting recently that you’d consider a total waste of time?" And the response? A majority of participants shake their heads yes or begin laughing.

Which set me off in search of a few statistics in terms of meetings and what attendees think of them? So here are two interesting statistics I found. See if you can guess the answers.

1) Approximately, how many meetings are held each day in the US?*

2) What % of those meetings are characterized as a waste of time by attendees?*

See answers below
*source: (MIT Sloan Management: The Science and Fiction of Meetings: Winter 2007)

And now the ANSWERS…

1) 11,000,000 (Yes millions)

2) Between 25 - 50% are considered a waste

So my question is from your perspective, what separates great meetings from a waste of time?

Please comment.

Take Responsibility for Innovation~ a 1 minute video!

Russ Schoen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:53:11 +0000

In collaboration with New & Improved, LLC, I am thrilled to announce that we have completed a series of 7 short videos that reinforce key principles of training in deliberate creativity. Each video is short and sweet (translation under 2 minutes). Take a view, and if you like it, pass along this blog address and while you are at it, leave a comment. Thanks and happy viewing!

A call for a presidential Council on innovation

Russ Schoen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:32:22 +0000

In this month’s, Psychology Today, on page 30, there is a page of suggestions from readers on the type of advisors that should be on a Presidential Council of Psychological Advisors. One of the contributors, Art Markman submitted a suggestion that I think is worth repeating. Here’s Art’s suggestion, "The President needs an adviser in cognitive science who can advise him on harnessing innovation. At the heart of innovation are two ideas that draw on cognitive science: How can we spur the creation of new ideas? How can we create systems within organizations to ensure those ideas are implemented?"

I would add one additional thought. This advisor should also be able to help re-FRAME the challenges, or help redefine the actual questions we should be solving that we, as a country, face. For example, we hear all the time, we need to fix education! How to fix education? Maybe we need an advisor who helps challenge this question and reframe it to How might we get students excited about learning? or What might be all the ways we can get high school students to want to come to school? or some other novel and intriguing question?

New questions, yield new types of ideas, which then need to be implemented…

Wouldn’t it be great if the White House had a director of innovative thinking? Ahh, now that’s a job, I’d be happy to serve!

your thoughts?

Fascinating statistics that may impact your work and life

Russ Schoen — Thu, 28 May 2009 01:30:08 +0000

In case you haven’t seen it, this almost 5 minute You Tube clip called DID YOU KNOW? is worth checking out! As you watch it, think about what it might mean for you? your work? your life? What might be all the opportunities that exist to share your talents with the world? Please leave a comment if you enjoy the clip (or if you don’t!)

Wedding slide show from our photographer!

Russ Schoen — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:25:38 +0000

An amazing slide show from our photographer! check it out..

Galleria Marchetti Wedding Photography by Heather Parker Photography from heather parker on Vimeo.

Conference alerts!

Russ Schoen — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:01:28 +0000

Want to enhance your meetings? improve idea generation? learn to facilitate innovation sessions? then you may want to check out the following two conferences.

1) Tribute to Sid Parnes, May 8th & 9th, Buffalo, New York, featuring workshops and presentations to honor Sid Parnes, one of the original pioneers in deliberate creativity and co-founder of the Creative Problem Solving Institute and the International Center for Studies in Creativity.

2) Revolution of Creativity - the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute, June 21st through June 24th, longest running creativity conference in the World. Check it out!

Weekend thinking tip - stuck on a problem? leave it behind for a little bit!

Russ Schoen — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:47:19 +0000

Yesterday afternoon, I was stuck trying to solve a problem. The more I thought about the issue, the more frustrated I was getting. I felt like I was banging my head against the wall. Ever experience this? Sound familiar?

So as the clock approached 5:30pm, I decided to head out of the house to exercise. And you know what? About 30 minutes into exercising, I finally felt myself relax and in an instant the answer to the problem I had previously been struggling with came to me.

I was reminded of the power of stepping away from the problem, and the power of incubation. Sometimes the best way to solve a problem, is to NOT think about it deliberately.

So the next time you are stuck on an issue, make a choice to leave the problem behind and go for a walk or exercise. See what happens… worse comes to worse, the problem will still be there when you return. But there is also a chance, that your decision to get away from the problem, may reveal the answer you are looking for.

Happy Exercising!

Friday’s thinking tip!

Russ Schoen — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:28:41 +0000

Want a quick way to promote acceptance of new ideas? Next time you are presented with a new idea, use POINT to evaluate the idea. Point stands for Plusses, Opportunities, Issues and New Thinking.

Plusses - what is good about the idea?

Opportunities - if the idea was successful, what future positives might result? (it might lead to…)

Issues - any concerns with the idea, phrase them using the question starter How to.. (for example, how to fund it?_

New thinking - brainstorm ideas to overcome your issues…

You can POINT an idea in 30 seconds to 2 minutes… give it a try!

30 second tip(s) to promote creative thinking

Russ Schoen — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:26:39 +0000

Talk to anyone in business about running a training session for two days and one of the most frequent responses is, can you do it in 1 day? half a day? 2 hours? So in acknowledgement to the time and resource pressures folks are in these days, I will be sharing tips for what every manager, employee or leader can do in 30 seconds or less (yes, okay I admit some might take up to 1 minute) to promote creative thinking in their team, group or organization. Ready or not here we go.

THINKING TIP # 1

When phased with a problem, rephrase it using the question starter, "How to?" or "How might?"

For example,

Problem: We don’t have enough money for this project.

RePhrase it as "How might we get enough money for this project?"

Problem: We need more business leads.

Rephrase: "How to get new business leads?"

When you ask yourself or others an open ended question, the human brain can’t help but try to answer it?

Try it and see for yourself!

Which is more effective? Brainstorming alone or in a group?

Russ Schoen — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:44:59 +0000

"Which process generates the best ideas – having several individuals brainstorm alone or bringing them together to bounce ideas off one another?"

A study conducted by professors of the Wharton School at UPENN and an assistant professor at INSEAD sought to answer this question using research. Here’s what they found.

When they compared a group that worked together vs individuals, they found that individuals generated more ideas.

However, the group that worked together generated the ideas that were rated OVERALL AS THE BEST (by an outside panel). They also generated ideas that were RATED AS THE WORST.

The researcher’s rationale? The group that worked together were able to build on each other’s ideas…According to one of the researchers, ""Random interactions are likely to produce better-quality ideas."

So the next time you really want good ideas, pull a group together. You just might generate a great idea (and most likely you would also probably generate an awful idea!)

Learn more about the study here.

A special thanks to Newell Eaton of New and Improved who originally shared this with me!