No ifs, no buts, no snarky comments from me: I found this TEDx talk by Dr Alan Watkins very persuasive. And that’s even though it begins with a sports story.
That’s specifically part 1: there is a part 2 right here but I haven’t seen it yet, I was too busy rushing to show you the first bit.
Everybody shut up. Just think:
Seems counterintuitive to plan silence into a meeting, doesn’t it? Alexander Kjerulf, author of Happy Hour Is 9 to 5, has found silence to be an ideal way to encourage deep thinking and ideas, right in the midst of a meeting.
“The purpose of meetings is not to talk–the purpose of meetings is to arrive at ideas, solutions, plans and decisions.”
Since few of us can think deeply while we’re talking, the two-minute silence break gives a chance to mull over a decision, issue, or stalemate.
As ever, I choke on the word ‘science’ but at least they mean this idea and the other eight have some solid research and statistics behind them. Most of the ideas in the full piece are pretty familiar – limit meetings to who really needs to be there, make them quick and so on – but they’re all good and well worth your time reading.