TeamWorking Encouraging Ideas Part One

As the leader, do take time to briefly introduce the situation or need – and do so in a neutral way. Avoid expressing your views (either by word or action). This is because you want to encourage people to come up with any ideas or suggestions – not simply those they feel will fit in with your way of thinking. Too many leaders prevent creative-thinking by revealing their own ideas early – or even demonstrate their prejudices – before anyone else has had a chance to speak!

Equally, if you are discussing a problem or awkward situation that needs to be dealt with – never start by blaming one or more of the people in the room for it happening in the first place! Your job is to focus their minds on suggesting answers and useful courses of action. Help them to avoid justifications of their past behaviour - or looking for opportunities to pass the buck If you want people to do some thinking before they get together, then you can either introduce the subject at a previous meeting – or send an email or memo to all those participating. This should follow the guidelines from the previous point!

Make sure all ideas are given equal weight at the moment they are suggested. This means that none can be either enthusiastically welcomed or shouted down. The first stage is simply to gather the ideas, suggestions or options – perhaps on a flipchart or whiteboard. It can be useful to have someone else act as collator – you can then concentrate on the running of the meeting. Any stidling of creative thought at this stage, simply leads you to have less useful material to work with. And, it can also ensure that some people never offer you a "brave" idea or "off-the-wall" suggestion ever again! So, at this stage there are no "good" or "bad" ideas - there are simply "ideas"

The second of these articles continues to provide tips to help you make the most of "ideas" meetings

TeamWorking Encouraging Ideas Part One - To learn more about this author, visit Gordon Veniard's Website.

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