Stop brainstorming. There’s a mountain of research showing that team brainstorming doesn’t work. There are several reasons why, some having to do with unconscious conformity, others with fear of being judged, and still others with unclear norms. (For example, people are often told to say whatever comes to mind, but also not to criticize.)
Some six page memo vibes there. Come to the meeting with a proposal. And, for as much as I loath the pre-wire and socializing the deck, those does give people a chance to consider an idea. The alternative is that they learn about it for the first time in a meeting and then have just a few minutes to evaluate and react. The problem is more the medium of the meeting, not collaboration among workers.
Here’s a summary of the other techniques and practices mentioned:
- Monotask. Pick one important task, set a one-hour timer, and put your phone in another room. Within days this retrains attention that has been conditioned to switch constantly, and two or three blocks tend to beat a full normal workday.
- Satisfice instead of maximize. Set “good enough” criteria in advance and stop deciding once they’re met. Maximizers end up less happy and more prone to regret, and most daily decisions don’t repay the cognitive cost of optimizing.
- Brainwrite, don’t brainstorm. Have everyone write ideas independently before the group discussion. It defuses conformity and fear of judgment, and produces the equal turn-taking that Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Google research links to the smartest teams.
- Build shared obligations. Tie family and community life to real recurring duties, including chores for kids. The Harvard Study of Adult Development’s 86-year data shows strong real-world ties are the single best predictor of health and longevity.
- Use deadlines and commitment devices. Put a date on it, pledge money to charity if you fail, or otherwise design the environment so the desired behavior is the default. This replaces willpower with structure and makes bailing psychologically or financially expensive.
See more details in this longer summary of the summary.
And, check out the original: The Counterintuitive Way To Get Better At Anything by Eric Barker.