Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs: A New Kind of Meeting

Great companies know that it takes highly engaged employees to have a successful business. Even with this knowledge companies resort to having hundreds of passive and pointless meetings. Employees feel that it is a gigantic waste of time.

You may not be able to eliminate meetings, but there are certainly better ways to make them more effective and engaging.

Let’s say that your team is in a rut. They can’t seem to break free of their routine and they need to come up with new ideas for their next marketing campaign, or product pitch. You could have a meeting and present another fifty-six page PowerPoint presentation on “innovation,” watching your team pretend to nod their heads at you while they secretly text their friends under the table…

or

you could do something completely different.

Here’s an idea…

Take your team outside of the conference room, outside of the building, and start looking for street signs. Task the team with looking at signs differently. Start walking and when they see a sign have them add or take away letters, shapes, etc. Notice if one of the lights is out on a storefront sign. Maybe it spells a whole new word. See how the signs look different when you really notice them in a different way.

What if “One Way” became “One Wave”

and

“Watch out for Falling Ice” became “Watch out for Falling Ice Cream?”

Now take those ideas back into the office. What words could you add or subtract to change the meaning of your latest marketing pitch, product or idea?

I saw the sign and it opened up my mind

…are they happy now?