GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

Since 1987, I have been facilitating a wide variety of high octave business meetings for just about every industry on planet earth. These meetings have been variably referred to as leadership development programs, creative thinking trainings, innovation workshops, team building off sites, brainstorming sessions, strategic planning pow wows, senior team retreats, annual conferences, and business simulations.

Along the way, as you might imagine, I’ve developed quite a repertoire of approaches, methods, processes, tools, techniques, and skills to help me get the job done. All of them have worked if delivered in the right way at the right time.

But when push comes to shove (as it often does), the single most effective meeting facilitation ability I’ve discovered is the most mysterious one of all: presence. Yes, presence, — the ability to be totally in the moment, no matter what the collective mood, mindset, or drama is of the people in the room.

Presence, I have come to realize, is the doorway to all things meaningful — the bridge between what is and what can be.

Easier said than done, however, especially when you, as the “meeting leader”, find yourself in a room full of strong-willed, highly opinionated people who, more often than not…

1. Are not there of their own free will.
2. Represent competing agendas.
3. Don’t always like or trust each other.
4. Are wondering why they aren’t leading the meeting.
5. Have a hard time letting go of control.
6. Don’t want to rock the boat.
7. Have a long history of funky meeting behaviors.
8. Are concerned that the meeting will actually accomplish its goal, leading to the uncomfortable moment when they will be expected to volunteer for a project they have no time to deal with.
9. Keep sneaking peaks at their cell phones.
10. Have major issues with senior leadership (even if they are senior leadership).

Facilitative presence — the ability to let go of what just happened, what hasn’t happened, and what might happen in service to what is happening is the difference-maker.

Presence opens up space and time. Presence opens up possibility. Presence enables a kind of organizational Red Sea to part so that everyone in the room, no matter what their social style, title, or astrological sign can take a fresh look at what needs to be addressed right then and there.

Presence is one of the major pre-conditions for change. It requires that the meeting facilitator has an uncluttered mind, trust in their own instincts, and a relentless fascination for group process.

If you like, think of presence as a kind of Venn diagram, the intersection where improv, planning, and curiosity meet.

The good news? There are many ways a meeting facilitator can get to the space of presence. The simplest way is similar to what some people, these days, are refering to as “mindfulness”. Others call it by different names: “witnessing”, “centering”, “non-attachment”, or “the fruits of meditation.”

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what you call it. What matters is that you experience it so you can be a conduit/channel for a disparate group of people going beyond their individual differences to get to higher ground.

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

There are 16,593,242 teenage girls living in America. One of them lives in my house. That would be my daughter, Mimi, an extraordinary 17-year old who, shall we say, has been quite an education for me.

If you have a teenage daughter, you know what I mean. If you’ve been a teenage daughter, you know what I mean. If you have a friend with a teenage daughter (and spent hours chanting “It’s just a phase she’s going through, it too shall pass”) you know what I mean. Everyone else — oh ye of no teenagers in your life — please give me the benefit of the doubt for a moment while I shed some major light on the little understood emerging science of how to communicate to a teenage girl.

Most people who know me would assume I’d have no trouble communicating to my teenage daughter. I’m smart. I’m likable. I’m laid back and usually thought of as “cool”. I am also a professional communicator — my work taking me all over the world to speak with all kinds of people: rocket scientists, MTV programmers, actuaries, college students, polymer chemists, PR wizards, cultural creatives, Hollywood executives, video game makers, and everybody else in between — a percentage for whom English is their second language.

Compared to communicating to my teenage daughter, these people are a piece of cake.

Usually, my attempts to engage my daughter in meaningful conversation are perceived of as lame. I ask what I consider to be authentic, thoughtful, caring questions and, more often than not, get only inscrutable, one word answers – “Fine”, “Good”, and “OK” being the three most popular, as she mounts the carpeted staircase to her room.

If I try to get clever in my conversation-opening mode, I succeed only in getting “the look” — the non-verbal equivalent of “Yo, dude, I see through your game of trying to have a conversation with me and, God, why would I want to talk with anyone as old as you when, in fact, I have some serious texting and Netflix watching to do?”

But today… ah, today… driving Ms. Mimi to school was a Red Sea parting experience — a glorious epiphany, free parking in Monopoly — one of those Archimedes-in-the-bathtub moments we’ve all heard about.

Are you ready for the the secret to communicating to a teenage girl? STORY!

Yes, story! Today, instead of my pitiful, Socratically-infused, semi-desparate attempt to engage my still-not-yet-fully-formed-frontal-cortex-challenged daughter, I completely shifted gears. I took a left turn, instead of a right, segueing from something she said to the spontaneous telling of a personal story — the passionate, no holds barred sharing of a life-changing moment, for me, that happened five years ago in Australia — a moment when the eternal adolescent in me made a quantum leap.

I was not probing. I was not teaching. I was not “looking for an opening” to establish more rapport. I was merely recounting a story that mattered to me — one, it turns out, that mattered to her, she being an edgy, aspiring artist who, like me, sometimes wrestles with doubt.

The vibe in the car? Totally transformed from the kind of teenage black hole moment where only a father’s bald spot is visible to the sudden brilliance of a Christmas morning.

When my story was over, my daughter was not only fully present, engaged, and responsive… she asked ME questions. Here in this space, Mimi and I were one, two members of the same tribe sitting around the same fire, the light in each others’ eyes all we needed to find our way home to ourselves and each other.

While there probably aren’t a whole of teenage girls in your life right now, you, as a human being, innovator, entrepreneur, manager, team leader, worker bee, or business owner, are faced with the same challenge every single day that millions of parents of teenage girls are faced with — and that is how to how to BRIDGE THE GAP between you and “that other person”… how to connect… how to engage in a way that works.

May I suggest that STORY is the way to go — the convertible, low-carbon emission vehicle that allows you to travel vast distances between others who may be very different from yourself. Story, quite simply, is the BRIDGE, the universally understood medium that makes it profoundly easy to deliver and receive a message in the least amount of time and in a way that is empowering, inspiring, and memorable.

What story will YOU tell this week? And who will you tell it to?

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

If there is person you know who is on the cusp of a breakthrough, big idea, or simply struggling to figure something out, there is one thing you can do that will be supremely helpful. It has nothing to do with your good ideas, insights, or intuitions, of which you probably have many. It has everything to do with your ability to listen non-judgmentally.

Being listened to is what aspiring innovators need the most, but it is often what they get the least.

Well-meaning friends, spouses, and colleagues assume that their advice, ideas, and suggestions are what’s needed when, in fact, their advice, ideas, and suggestions are either uninvited, poorly timed, or overwhelming.

It’s a bit like that old saw: the best way to tame a horse is to give it a big meadow in which to run.

The aspiring innovators in your life need a big meadow, not your big ideas — and it is your listening that creates the meadow.

Creative thinkers need space to roam, wander, and meander. They need the relaxed state of mind that comes when someone, non-judgmentally, really listens to them — without attempting to fix, improve, advise, suggest, or resolve.

Talking, in fact, is how many people think. In other words, they don’t know what they think until they have a chance to “talk it out”. But if there’s no one listening, “talking it out” becomes very difficult.

The paradox? The smarter and more creative you are, the harder it is to really listen to others — especially if they are frustrated, confused, or stressed. Because you don’t want to see others struggling, you take on the role of “fixer”, trying to resolve their issues with your insight and wisdom. Not a good idea.

While you may have a lot of insight and wisdom, your insight and wisdom is not what’s needed. What’s needed is listening. Authentic, non-judgmental, unhurried, no strings attached listening.

Who, in your life, do you need to listen to more deeply? And what can you do, this week, to create the conditions that will encourage them to talk?

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

Here’s a fun test for you: If you can read the rest of this paragraph without logging onto Facebook, tweeting, or thinking about crop circles, there’s a good chance you do not have ADD, ADHD, or any other recently-identified medical condition.

That’s the good news.

The not-so-good news? The overwhelming number of disorders, dysfunctions, and syndromes popping up daily make it almost impossible to understand exactly what condition you actually have.

As a concerned citizen, humanitarian, and Johnny Depp look-a-like, I’ve decided to go beyond my SAHS (Social Activist Hesitation Syndrome) and actually do something about it.

Below, you will find my guide to 14 of the most recently identified medical conditions. Study them carefully. If you have one of them, please check your health insurance policy immediately to see if it will cover the cost of the medicines you will soon feel compelled to buy.

1. FSGDD (Five Star General Distraction Disorder): The involuntary tendency of high ranking military officials to throw away their careers and share classified information with well-dressed socialites looking for diplomatic immunity so they won’t have to pay their parking tickets or wait on line at Wal-Mart.

2. CFSUD (Chronic Facebook Status Update Disorder): A debilitating disease that shuts down the immune system whenever a person’s need to change their Facebook status update supersedes their need to change their underwear, breathe, or have a meaningful conversation with another human being.

3. RAQS (Reflexive Air Quote Syndrome): The simultaneous extension of the index and middle finger, of both hands, to signal to anyone in one’s visual field that the word or phrase about to be spoken is either inconsequential, hyper-inflated, or attributed to someone from an opposing political party.

4. TGRES (Teenage Girl Rolling Eye Syndrome): The upward, lateralized movement of eyeballs in the presence of parents, teachers, or guidance counselors in the still forming cerebral cortex of teenage girls. Or like, whatever.

5. CPD (Compulsive Photoshop Disorder): A distortion of the visual field in which people, objects, animals, or natural expressions of Mother Nature are perceived to be deficient, requiring immediate digital manipulation.

6. MPS (Marital Projection Syndrome): A compensatory nervous system reaction triggered whenever a husband or wife believes so strongly in their own concepts of right and wrong that all they can do is criticize, judge, and wallow in self-righteousness for extended periods of time, resulting in high therapy bills, the sensation of walking on eggshells, and the cessation of sex for 30 days.

7. PID (Premature Intervention Disorder): The hallucinated belief by war-mongering American politicians that invading and occupying other countries for ridiculously long periods of time will increase national security, distract people from thinking about the economy, and lower gas prices.

8. VCD (Virtual Connection Dysfunction): The involuntary flapping of opposable thumbs, accompanied by the sudden, compulsive search for the nearest Smart Phone during early or late stage lovemaking.

9. RCOD (Remote Control Overload Disorder): A state of bi-polar catatonia triggered by the inability to make sense of all those tiny, misplaced buttons on one or more remote control devices, none of which correlate to anything in the known universe.

10. ITILLJDD (I Think I Look Like Johnny Depp Disorder): The irrational belief by men over 40 that just because they have a wispy mustache, slick their hair back, and have seen Pirates of the Caribbean twice, women will want to have sex with them.

11. MGITOGD (My God Is the Only God Disorder): A fanatical mindset in which one’s certainly about their own belief system can only be validated by making others wrong and, depending on the need for more oil, real estate, or power can lead to the death of thousands of innocent people.

12. FMYS (Four More Years Syndrome): The sudden, song-like repetition of the phrase “Four More Years, Four More Years” by straw hat-wearing, overweight, ridiculously optimistic followers of incumbent presidents at political rallies held in convention centers, state fairs, or parking lots.

13. CLS (Compulsive Like Disorder): The involuntary need to ask everyone you know to “like” your Facebook Page even if they don’t like it, don’t like you, or have already liked your page due to your incessant badgering and self-promotion.

14.BYHFSWAYTWSMLBBIAITHYSYACTHTLFSKOTOEWARLNEBATBOHND: (Blaming Your Husband For Snoring When Actually You, the Wife, Snore Much Louder, But Because It’s Almost Impossible to Hear Yourself Snoring, You Are Constantly Telling Him to Look for Some Kind of Treatment Or Else Wear a Ridiculous Looking, Nostril-Expanding Bandaid Across the Bridge of His Nose Dysfunction.) Just what it sounds like.

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

At last count there were 195 countries in the world — 196 if you count Taiwan. These countries range in size from 0.2 square miles (The Vatican — yes, the Vatican is a country) and Russia (10,853 square miles). Each of these countries have their own national flag, anthem, government, cuisine and PR department. They also have their own national holidays.

Although schools and post offices don’t necessarily close for all national holidays, the citizens of each country usually pause — at least for a few moments — to remember, observe, or celebrate something in their nation’s history that has special meaning to them.

Nations, however, are only part of the holiday phenomenon. Nations belong to regions. Regions belong to hemispheres. And hemispheres belong to the world — a geographical entity that also celebrates holidays — many of which are little known days of observance that tend to be ignored by most of the nation-centric citizens of Earth — holidays, for example, like International Talk Like a Pirate Day, International Lefthanders Day, and International Chocolate Day.

Clearly, some of these global holidays are the work of over-caffeinated PR people trying to promote a product, service or cause most of us could easily live without. But there are other international holidays, consciously conceived and creatively executed, that definitely merit more attention no matter where you live.

One such day — not yet officially recognized as a national or international holiday, but well on it’s way — is the International Day of Peace.  Established by the United Nations in 1981, this inspired day of observance is fast becoming a global celebration of planet Earth’s biggest untapped resource — peace.

Thousands of organizations around the world, both large and small, are dedicating their time and resources to supporting this effort – one that addresses both sides of the “peace coin” — external peace (i.e. the end of aggression, violence and war) and internal peace (i.e. the individual experience of contentment, fulfillment and joy).

For example, Pathways to Peace, the originators of The International Day of Peace back in 1981, has been advocating for a better world for the past 33 years. Peace One Day, spearheaded by charismatic filmmaker, Jeremy Gilley (who convinced the UN to declare September 21st as a specific day of peace), has been an extremely vocal amplifier of the message. Words of Peace Global has been actively rallying support for Peace Day in 81 countries since 2011. And TPRF, a humanitarian aid organization has just released Citizens of the Earth, a compelling two-minute video featuring the words of it’s Founder, Prem Rawat — a video that will be showcased at many Peace Day events around the world on September 21st.

But for every global non-profit, there are thousands of smaller, local organizations also getting on the peace train.

PeaceCast, for example, has put together a worldwide webcast of peace-inspired news and entertainment that will begin in New Zealand (the first place on Earth where September 21st begins) and end in Hawaii 48 hours later (where it will still be September 21st).

A few thousand miles away, at the same time, Camino de la Paz, a three-month old grass roots organization in San Miguel de Allende, will be hosting a peace-themed music, art, healing, video, and spoken word event to kick start their effort to eventually bring peace to all of Mexico.

Large. Small. Old. New. Global. Local. The particulars don’t really matter. What matters is the fact that massive amounts of human beings, regardless of their language, legacy, or location, are joining together and taking responsibility to communicate a message that very much needs to be heard these days – the message that peace is not only possible, but essential – and not just on paper, but in the hearts and minds of all seven billion people who inhabit this highly challenged planet of ours.

Want to help with Peace Day? It’s not too late. There are plenty of organizations who would love your support. If you don’t have the time or interest to volunteer, no worries. You can still tune in to what’s happening by clicking here on September 21st for Peacecast’s livestream broadcast or here to tune into Unity Foundation’s livestream broadcast.

Editor’s note: this piece was first published on the Huffington Post

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the financial services company that left me an urgent voice mail message asking that I call them back immediately about my availability to lead their annual leadership retreat on a island off the coast of Florida.

All I can recall was how generic sounding their name was — something like National Investment Services… or Consolidated Financial Brokers…. or The American Banking Alliance — kind of like the corporate equivalent of John Doe.

Somehow, they had heard of me and, with their big company pow wow coming up, were looking for someone, with a track record, to help them “become more innovative.”

Never having heard of them before, I googled their name and, 1.73 seconds later, found myself on their website, slickly designed, I imagined, by someone with a special fondness for iStock photos of earnest looking models impersonating business people — models who must have just moved to L.A. to pursue acting careers, but found themselves, at 24 or 35, working part-time as waiters and jumping at the chance to pick up some easy money wearing a suit and a smile for a day.

Easy for me to say — me being the proverbial pot calling the proverbial kettle black with my big ass mortgage, family to feed and young entrepreneur’s dream of making it big so I’d actually have enough moolah, one day, to invest with a financial services firm. Not to mention all the time in the world to write my best-selling book.

My first call with the client was pleasant enough. They talked. I listened, choosing not to interrupt them every time they made their point with an acronym I probably should have known if I only I hadn’t spent my formative years living as a hippie, poet and monk.

OK, so they weren’t a solar energy company. So they weren’t asking me to help them end AIDS. I got it. This was business. The money business. The big money business — and I was in it, no matter how much Rilke and Rumi I read on the side. Money. This was about money. Money and the VP of something or other inviting me to meet with him and his team the following week on the 57th floor of a building on Wall Street. There would be a badge waiting for me at the security desk, he explained. All I needed to do was show my ID.

Thrilled? Was I thrilled? Not exactly. But this was a possible gig and I needed the bread, so I went.

The VP and his team on the 57th floor looked nothing like the iStock photos on their company’s homepage, though they did have a real nice view of Manhattan and a large mahogany conference table.

Our conversation went well enough. I asked all the right questions. They gave all the right answers. They sprinkled the conversation with football metaphors. I nodded. They gave me their business cards. I gave them mine. But on the way home, I began to feel a creeping sense of dislocation and dread — like I was auditioning for a movie I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to be in — a movie being produced by a big man, sitting poolside, cell phone and martini in hand.

So when they called me back for a third meeting, I was betwixt and between. Do I simply trust my instincts and tell them I’m not their man? Or do I let go of my all-too-obvious self-righteous judgments and focus on the possibility that I might actually be able to help them get to higher ground?

Eternally the optimist, I chose the latter and decided to meet with them a third time — a meeting, sad to say, which only confirmed the fact that I didn’t like them very much and didn’t like myself for sitting in a room with them and enabling their collective hallucination of themselves as a service organization when all they really wanted to do was make more money. Lots more money.

More chit chat. More coffee. More “run it up the flagpole” platitudes that littered our conversation like hidden charges on a credit card bill.

This was the moment of truth.

My client-to-be, apparently satisfied with what was about to become his decision to engage my services, cut to the chase and asked me to quote him a fee.

The honorable thing to have done, at the time, would have sounded like “John, I wish you the best of luck at your offsite, but after deep consideration, I don’t think I’m the best possible fit for your company’s needs.”

But since I hadn’t yet mastered the art of speaking my truth I took the easy way out and doubled my fees, thinking that they would now be so ridiculously high it would be the client’s decision to end the relationship, not mine.

“That sounds about right,” the client exclaimed, extending his right hand to seal the deal.

Fast forward six weeks later.

It’s 8:30 a.m. and I’m on stage, in the Oakwood Room, on a beautiful island off the coast of Florida. Looking out at the audience, I notice that four of the gathered troops are sleeping, heads on the table. Someone in the front row explains to me that last night had been a “late one” and they’d all stayed up, drinking, until 4:00 a.m.

I tap the mic and begin speaking, trusting that the sound of my amplified voice would be enough to wake the dead.

Two of them snap to attention. The other two don’t, still snoring lightly.

I signal the people sitting next to their sleep-deprived peers to poke them, which they do, shooting glances at me as if I am a substitute algebra teacher.

This is, as far I could tell, not a leadership offsite at all, but a college fraternity weekend — big men on campus with stock options, golf shirts and a very high opinion of themselves. The collective attention span in the room is somewhere between a tse tse fly and a lizard. Nothing I say lands. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Only one thing is clear — I am the highly paid warm up act before another night of drinking — a small typographic box they can check off next quarter to prove they have done “the innovation thing.”

I may have missed the moment of truth back at my client’s office six weeks ago, but I wasn’t going to miss it today.

“Gentlemen and ladies,” I announce. “It’s obvious that some of you don’t want to be here. It seems you’d rather be golfing, napping or checking your email. I have no problem with that. So… we’re going to take a 20-minute break. Only return if you really want to be here. Otherwise, you’ll just be dead weight, screwing it up for the rest of us. Kapish?”

Twenty minutes pass. Everyone returns. Every single one of them.

And while the rest of the day didn’t exactly qualify as one of the great moments in the history of innovative leadership off sites, at least it wasn’t a total loss. Some good stuff actually happened. People woke up. People shaped up. People stepped up. And I learned a valuable lesson that would serve me for the rest of my life: Follow my feeling, not the money trail.

I hope you will comment: What might you have done in same situation?  Should be noted that this occurred 10+ years ago, before the U.S. economic downturn or ‘recession’. This was a time when many companies seemed to be paying lip service to innovation.  I’d like to think that innovation is better understood today, more mainstream. Innovation Excellence Co-founder, Julie Anixter  insists,  “Innovation is not an idea. Innovation is a Discipline.” What do you think? Are more companies doing a better job of practicing innovation?  Share your thoughts/experience in comment section below. Thanks!

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

If you are a creative person regularly involved with starting new projects — the kind unlikely to get results overnight — here is a simple practice that will keep you in a positive frame of mind and save you from the all-too-familiar phenomenon of depressing yourself by focusing on the cup (or your life) being half empty.

At the end of each work day, acknowledge yourself for all of your accomplishments, small, medium, and large. But not just silently, in your head, verbally — aloud.

Most cultural creatives, no matter how inspired they are at the beginning of a project, eventually end up feeling down in the dumps. They start focusing on everything they haven’t done and everything that hasn’t happened instead of focusing on their progress and the fact that they are actually getting closer to their goal.

What I do at the end of each work day that works like a charm, whether I’m in my car, walking the dog, or just laying around, is SPEAK OUT, to myself, everything I’ve done that moved my project forward that day — whether it was a phone call made, research done, task accomplished, proposal accepted, or whatever.

Almost always, I’m surprised at the ground I’ve covered and I feel my mood changing from dread and impossibility to a buoyant sense of victory and “I’m on my way.”

I’m not suggesting you BS yourself, just acknowledge what you’ve done, no matter how small. And announce it to yourself so you get to HEAR it, not just THINK it.

This simple self-acknowledgment-process establishes a sense of closure for the day, so you can let go of “work mode” and transition to an evening of rest, renewal, and incubation — an actual night off without having to carry that heavy load of incompletes that not only weigh YOU down, but weigh down all those wonderful people around you who can FEEL your low grade virus of “not good enough.”

Drop it. It’s useless. You don’t need it anymore. And the simplest way to get rid of it is to simply announce, in the pleasure of your own company, the progress you’ve made that day — a nice little gift you can give yourself and everyone else who shares your home or life.

Three minutes. That’s all it takes. Try it.

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

In the past few years I have noticed a curious trend in the media — one I can no longer ignore — and that is the appearance of seriously derisive articles about brainstorming by self-declared pundits and freelance writers.

Citing selected research on the subject and paying brief homage to Alex Osborne, the father of brainstorming, they make bold assertions about the ineffectiveness of the method, often claiming that “it does not work” and making grand declarations like “people are more creative away from the crowd” and “over 50 years of research shows that people often reach irrational decisions in a group.”

While the previous two quotes do have some degree of truth associated with them, likening a brainstorm session to a “crowd” is not only a poor choice of metaphors, it is patently untrue.

And while many irrational decisions have been made in groups since the beginning of time, to assume that irrational decisions will necessarily be made in a brainstorming session is only more proof that the writers of the recent spate of anti-brainstorming screeds have either never participated in a skillfully facilitated brainstorm session or are hopelessly late for their next journalistic deadline, refusing to take the time to go beyond their specious all-or-nothing conclusions drawn from someone else’s research — some of which is more than 50 years old.

To blatantly conclude that brainstorming sessions don’t work is as absurd as saying that marriages don’t work because 50% end in divorce or tourists shouldn’t visit New York City because sometimes the traffic is bad.

What I’m guessing that brainstorming naysayers really mean is that bad brainstorming sessions don’t work… or poorly facilitated brainstorming sessions don’t work… or brainstorming sessions with the wrong mix of unprepared participants (marriage, anyone?) don’t work.

Brainstorming critics like to cite a 1958 study, at Yale, that showed that students thinking on their own came up with twice as many solutions as brainstorming groups — and their solutions were deemed to be more effective and feasible.

Fine. Good. Terrific. I’m all for people thinking on their own in their dorm room… or Starbucks… or the zoo. That’s a good thing. But as a replacement for a well-run brainstorming session? Why the either/or syndrome? Why not both?

Just because you had breakfast this morning doesn’t necessarily mean you should skip dinner tonight, does it?

And besides, even a casual scan of the literature will reveal an extraordinary number of innovation-leaning people who joined forces with others to conceive something brilliant that none of them could have conjured on their own.

Think Jobs and Wozniak. Think Watson and Crick, Hewlett and Packard, John, Paul, George, and Ringo — and any number of less famous ad hoc groups of aspiring innovators, working in all kind of organizations, who came out of their corporate dorm rooms long enough to jam with other seekers of possibility to jump start bold new advances in just about every industry on planet Earth.

But wait! There’s more!

The anti-brainstorming forces are also fond of asserting that creativity is stifled in a brainstorming session.

Hello! Earth to journalists on deadline writing about brainstorming for a flight magazine. To claim that creativity will invariably be stifled in a brainstorming session is like saying that creativity will invariably be stifled in a marriage… or in a school… or in an organization. Possible? Yes. Whenever two or more people with egos get together, creativity has the potential to be stifled. But inevitable? No.

On the contrary, creativity is often sparked in a group — even groups that are cranky, competitive, and strong-willed. Indeed, “creative dissonance” is often the catalyst for breakthrough — NOT lone wolf, ivory tower idea generators sitting alone in their room attempting to conjure up the next big thing.

Brainstorm detractors — as least the ones I’ve read — are fond of citing “social loafing’, “social blocking”, “free riding”, and other group-centric sociological phenomenon as proof of why brainstorming sessions should cease to exist.

Yes, I agree that some people who work in organizations fit this slacker stereotype. But there is no room for this kind of energy-sucking behavior in a well-run brainstorming session — one that has been thoughtfully prepared, the right people invited, and with a skillful facilitator catalyzing the creative process.

Would brainstorm detractors suggest that we get rid of cities because some of them are polluted, or get rid of marriages because some couples quarrel, or eliminate music because some people turn up their stereos just a little too loud when their neighbors are trying to sleep?

With all due respect (well, with at least some respect), I humbly invite the small, but very vocal anti-brainstorming faction to pause for a moment and contemplate any one of the following questions — questions with the potential to spark the kind of creative thinking our small, but very vocal anti-brainstorming faction might have missed by not participating in a brainstorming session on this very topic.

1. How can brainstorm sessions be improved?
2. How can the facilitators of brainstorm sessions learn how to dependably spark creativity in others?
3. How can brainstorm sessions build on the good ideas generated by participants before the session begins?
4. How can team leaders or project managers ensure that the right mix of people attend their brainstorm sessions?
5. How can a group of brainstorm participants generate and abide by a set of guidelines that will radically increase their odds of generating breakthrough ideas?
6. How can brainstorming become part of a continuum of idea generation strategies in an organization, so its “idea eggs” are not all in the same basket?

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

If you are reading this, chances are good that you are currently a member of a team — either at work, in your community, or as part of a volunteer organization. And if you aren’t on a team now, chances are good that, at some time in your life, you were on a team. Yes? I thought so.

In any case, it’s more than likely that whatever team you are on, or have been on, has had some challenges along the way.

There were speed bumps, fumbles, breakdowns, lost opportunities, inefficiencies, infighting, power struggles, control issues, boring meetings, personality problems, competing agendas, cliques, triangulation, disappointment, disenchantment, and disillusionment.

You know, real life — the normal ups and downs of any group of people attempting to join together to accomplish some kind of mutually agreed upon goal.

I have been fascinated by this phenomenon for years and, along the way, have had the good fortune of being a member of quite a few high performing teams, including, in high school, an undefeated, championship soccer team.

Curiously, some people think that just because they’re working along side a bunch of other people they’re on a team. This is not necessarily true.

What they are thinking of as a “team”, may, in fact, merely be a group, club, association, assemblage, aggregation, congregation, gang, crowd, faction, posse, or loose confederation of highly opinionated individuals being paid by the same employer.

A team is different — requiring a much higher standard of participation and commitment — not unlike the difference between “dating” and “being married.”

Since there are many fine books on this topic (here’s my favorite) and I know you only have a few minutes to read this highly informative and action-oriented blog post, I’m going to cut to the chase and focus on just one small component of a high performing team — one you and your team can do something about immediately.

Agreements.

Yes, agreements. As in operating principles. Norms. Rules of engagement. The collective, verifiable, interpersonal behaviors that you and your teammates can say YES to and abide by that will radically enhance collaboration, communication, and connection.

Most teams operate as if their agreements are in place, but usually they’re not. They may be implied, but we all know where implications get us. The same place as good intentions.

So here we go — a checklist of 25 Team Agreements for your consideration.

I am not suggesting you adopt all of them. What I’m suggesting is that you consider them, find the ones that work for you and, in collaboration with your teammates, create your own set of agreements.

Whatever I’ve omitted, add. Whatever I’ve added that’s not your cup of tea, omit. Whatever wording is off-base, bothersome, or crude, change. And while some of what’s on my list may seem too granular for your taste, know this: Sometimes it’s the seemingly “small stuff” that screws everything up — like the pea under the mattress or adding one too many teaspoons of salt to an already really good pot of soup.

NOTE: I have purposely excluded what I call “Fortune Cookie” statements — those vague teamwork truisms (sometimes called “values”) that can be very important to honor, but are not always translated into action. For example, I could say “be respectful” or “communicate well”, but what does that really mean? These kinds of statements can be interpreted in a million different ways. If “respect” is an agreement you want your team to live by — and a mighty fine one it is — then frame it in a way that each team member will know what respect looks and sounds like, real time, and will be able to notice when that agreement is either broken or ignored.

READY?

1. Co-create and commit to a compelling vision.
2. Get completely clear about roles and responsibilities. Know who’s doing what. And by when.
3. Honor thy commitments.
4. If you realize that you cannot honor a commitment, inform your teammates ASAP and then renegotiate a new commitment.
5. Assume positive intent.
6. Communicate emotionally charged issues on the phone or in person, not in an email.
7. When someone speaks, listen deeply before gearing up to convince them of what you already think.
8. Share your successes with each other
9. Clear the air as quickly as possible whenever there is a breakdown
10. No triangulation! (If someone complains to you about someone else, encourage that person to work it out with the person they are complaining about.)
11. Give and receive feedback.
12. If you need help, ask for it.
13. Show up to meetings on time (and be prepared).
14. Routinely acknowledge and appreciate each other.
15. Be co-responsible. OK, maybe your team has a “leader”. Fine. But when the rest of team fails to speak up or act because “they are not the leader”, you got problems in River City. Everyone is responsible.
16. Share information freely. (Since, “information is power”, the withholding of information is a passive aggressive way in which people wield power over each other).
17. Speak your truth, without attacking or making anyone wrong.
18. Debrief “failures.” Together, find the silver lining in every cloud. In other words, learn from mistakes.
19. Create sacred time to have fun together.
20. Begin each day with a 5-minute “morning unity” meeting — a simple way to make sure everyone is on the same page.
21. Return calls and emails within 24 hours. (If you know you can’t return a call or email that quickly, let your teammates know by when you will be able to respond).
22. Share best practices and lessons learned.
23. Celebrate progress (small wins).
24. Be willing to say NO if there is something you are not willing to do (rather than seeming to agree and then, simply, not doing it).
25. Check for understanding before ending a meeting or phone call. Translation? Summarize what you think the agreement or action is — and invite others to either confirm your understanding or modify it in some way — so when you leave for points unknown you are all on the same page, not ruled by your assumptions or projections.

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

I finally figured out why so many brainstorming sessions fail. It’s the exact same reason why so many marriages fail. The couple shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place.

Many brainstorm sessions that are called never should have happened. And while some kind of meeting may have been appropriate for the invitees to attend, the form of a brainstorm session was the wrong form.

So, before you call your next brainstorming session, pause for a moment and ask yourself what the real purpose of your meeting is. If it’s not the generation and development of new ideas, your meeting is not a brainstorming session, but one of the following.

1. INFORMATION SHARING MEETING

A chance for participants to update each other on projects, download knowledge, share research and other changes impacting their common project. No new ideas are really needed here — just the real-time sharing of information.

2. TOPIC DISCUSSION MEETING

Some meetings need to be nothing more than talking head sessions. These kinds of meetings give people a chance to air out opinions, share questions, and listen to each other. There’s nothing wrong with these kinds of meetings — but they don’t necessarily require brainstorming for them to be effective.

3. TEAM ALIGNMENT MEETING

Sometimes teams simply need to get together to get on the same page. While this may include the sharing of information, it may also be a time for people to connect, clarify their collective vision, and reinforce their commitments. While this may seem “soft,” it’s not. Unless your team is connected, it’s unlikely they will be effective. Getting your ducks in a row usually requires more discussion than brainstorming.

4. FEEDBACK MEETING

Sometimes it’s useful for team members to give and receive feedback to each other. This kind of meeting can be as simple as a few “report outs” and then some honorable sharing of feedback. Ideas may emerge in the process, but a feedback meeting is not a brainstorm session. Ideas are less important that the ability of participants to listen to each other and speak their truth.

5. DECISION MAKING MEETING

Sometimes the only reason for a team to get together is to make decisions. Who’s doing what? Why? By when? If your team has no agreement or process in place about how it makes decisions, these kinds of meetings won’t go very well — unless, of course, it’s already been established that the “boss” or “team leader” is the one with the power to make decisions on behalf of the team.

Make sense?

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