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Daniel MittlemanAssociate Professordanny@cdm.depaul.eduCollege of Computing & Digital MediaDePaul University

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ways you can getthe ost out of Meetings *

*Surprising Ways you can get the Most out of your Meetings

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Some Context

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Meetings are bad

63% meetings don’t have a pre-planned agenda

91% of participants daydream

73% do other work during meetings

39% actually sleep in meetings

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Managers average 62 meetings a month

And consider half of them wasted time

45% of managers feel overwhelmed by number of meetings

$37 billion salary is wasted in business meetings per year

Meetings waste time

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92% people multi-task during virtual meetings

Hard to keep and regain focus

Technology impedes trust-building and decision-making

SMITHERS, I SEE YOUR CROSSWORD

Virtual meetings are even worse!

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Meetings are even more of a soul-sucking waste of time than you thought…

Here are some techniques to help

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I have a story to tell you

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The Navy’s Courses of Action (COA) Decision-making approach:

1. Analysis of the mission. 2. Analysis of factors affecting possible (COAs). 3. Generate candidate COAs.4. Analyze COAs. 5. Prioritize COAs. 6. Support the recommended decision.

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Brainstorming doesn’t work.

Ideation’s Dirty Little Secret

https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-group-brainstorming-is-a-waste-of-time

• Social Anxiety – Evaluation Apprehension

• Production Blocking

[The theory part]

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Computerize it!

One way to fix brainstorming

• Social Anxiety – Evaluation Apprehension

• Production Blocking

[The theory part]Everyone contributes at once

Anonymity, when appropriate

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Pros of Electronic Brainstorming

Cons of Electronic Brainstorming

Many more ideas generated faster

More equal participation

Lots of the ideas aren’t very good

Time consuming to evaluate all these ideas

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Directed BrainstormingAlready knew: Analysis of the mission. Already knew: Analysis of factors affecting possible

(COAs). Generate candidate COAs.Analyze COAs. Prioritize COAs. Support the recommended decision.

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Directed BrainstormingQuestion

?

Question?

Question?

Question?

Everyone writes an idea and waitsOn command, all swapAll are offered a new comparative instructionThen all create, building on prior idea and waitOn command, all swap

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Things to know aboutDirected Brainstorming

Works very well with limited time frameYou have to know up front how you will

evaluate good ideasGenerates about double total ideas

brainstorming, but triple high quality ideas

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Things to know aboutDirected Brainstorming

1. Many possible technique variations Each variation contributes to different predictable

outcomes on dimensions of • Idea count• Idea variety (creativity)• Idea quality (ratio of useful to non-useful ideas)

2. Technique is repeatable when leader follows a fairly simple pattern (recipe)

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Directed BrainstormingPattern Instructions

OverviewThe team brainstorms solutions for a problem in response to a sequence of comparative prompts offered by a moderator. Choose this Pattern…… To brainstorm solutions for a problem, and… … When you know in advance what the criteria will be for judging whether a solution is good or not. … When time is of the essence.Do not choose this Pattern…… When you want to push people “outside the box” in their quest for solutions. Use FreeBrainstorm instead

See slide notes for more…

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What do you do with this avalanche of ideas?

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And why vote isn't always useful?

How do we get people to quickly evaluate LOTS of ideas?

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[The theory part]

What are some common barriers to team agreement?

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Team members sometimes have conflicting goals, priorities,

values, or assumptionsgoalspriorities

valuesassumptions

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Different criteriafor evaluating choices

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Agreement

Requires Trust

Trust is harder to achieve

over distance

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The Problem with VotingYou get a result, but you don't know

People made the same assumptions People used the same decision criteria People trust and accept the result

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One Up1. Already knew: Analysis of the mission. 2. Already knew: Analysis of factors affecting

possible (COAs). 3. Generate candidate COAs.4. Analyze COAs. 5. Prioritize COAs. 6. Support the recommended decision.

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One Up

Question1. AAA2. DDD3. GGG

Question1. HHH2. KKK3. PPP

Question1. CCC2. FFF3. MM

M

QuestionLLLSSSTTT

Everyone gets a random page to view

Ask first person, “What one item on your list do we need to consider as a group?”

Add that item to public shared list.

Ask next person, “What one item not already on the shared list do we need to consider as a group?”

Repeat until all have added an item.Then loop through group again with, “Is there anything in front of you noton the shared list that should not be lost?”

FFF GGGLLL PPP

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One Up Pattern InstructionsOverviewIn this Pattern, you converge on the best ideas and simultaneously develop criteria for evaluating them. Participants identify increasingly high quality ideas, while explaining why they are better than any of the previous ones. The explanation yield valuable information about the way to the evaluate the identified ideas.Choose this Pattern…… to converge on high quality results under time pressure.… to surface the criteria for judging the quality of ideas as you converge on the ideas.… after a brainstorm and before organization and evaluation.… when the problem is murky and not well understood.Do not choose this Pattern…… if a thorough discussion of each idea is required. Try using a FastFocus or Evolution Pattern instead.… if you do not need to know evaluation criteria. Use a FastFocus Pattern instead.

See slide notes for more…

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Notes

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Lab study resultsNumber of Comments

Number of Unique Solutions

Traditional EBS

68.4 28.7

Directed EBS

128.4 85.4

Directed / Traditional Ratio 188% 298%

14 groups of 4 people brainstorming solutions to campus parking problems

Ratio

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Field Results for Directed Brainstorming

Much higher concentration of good ideasIdea quality improves over time

Ever seen that before in a brainstorming session?

Very rapid convergence (picking out the good ideas from the noise)

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Why does Directed Brainstorming work?

People better at comparison than judgement under time pressure

Reduced cognitive load for communication

Reduced cognitive load for convergence