1-2-All

Some more thoughts for the book on how to create better meetings with simple methods:

Another simple way to get more out of your meetings and to make sure everyone speaks to give people time to think by themselves and talk with another person before sharing with the whole room. The process is simple:

• Ask everyone to take one minute to think about the question
• Then discuss with the person next to you for a few minutes
• Share your thoughts and ideas with the whole group

You gain three things by doing this simple exercise:

• People who like to think before they speak will get the time to reflect.
• People who prefer to talk before they think are forced to think for a bit and then can talk their ideas through with the person next to them.
• People will share wilder ideas because they have checked them out with one other person before sharing them with the group and will feel much safer doing it.

I call the method 1-2-All for obvious reasons. If you are working with a bigger group, you can expand the method to involve a group of four before sharing with the entire group.