Communicating more effectively calls for tools that help connect and interact with people.  Easy to say—tough to do in meetings.   Every day, thousands of meetings take place—inside big fat organizations—that are painfully regulated by a presenter clicking through a slide deck.  Too often, the real (hidden) agenda for many is to just get through the deck—instead of accomplishing something remarkable.  I’ve been guilty of this as well.  Rather than insuring consistency, with everyone using “up-to-date”  logos and company PPT templates, I find it’s best to be inconsistent.  Many of us use things like flip charts to make things more spontaneous, creative or iterative—but it is not useful enough.

To reboot the same old meeting fatigue, I like to inject even more random tools,  from Power Point (admittedly) and Keynote, to Post Its and flip charts, to audio, video and live web surfing tours,  and my favorite, big white boards (preferably floor to ceiling size) to help visualize and develop ideas more collaboratively.  White-boarding can be more engaging, but you can find yourself loosing people in complex discussions and drawings, because it does not provide the best platform for those who may need more structured discussions and ideation.  What’s often needed is something everyone can gather around to discuss, and—absent a nice fire or a talking stick to pass around—I find maps often do the trick.

 
One group I like is  Maga Maps.  They develop collaborative maps (like this one) that can be hung on the wall, in all sizes, to help a team focus in on what’s important.  Where slides fail to encourage collaboration, maps prompt people to get out of their chairs, gather around a single focal point and participate in an interactive discussion.  I also like to leave the maps up after a meeting—often in the hallways—so people can continue the discussions and hopefully innovation long after the meeting has ended.

Maps don’t have to be fancy and formal like this one—you can simply draw it on the white board before the meeting.  Try using maps for one of your meetings and see what happens to the creativity and energy in the room.  If you are really brave, loose the chairs…and maybe even the conference room!