Consultancy Matters

If you want to hold brainstorms that unearth better, more creative ideas, it all starts with the number of people in the room.

That’s my first tip for you: Follow the “pizza rule” for brainstorming. If you’re unfamiliar with the “pizza rule,” it’s the idea that if you have more people in a room than you could feed with a pizza, there are too many people in that room to hold a productive meeting.

The same rule goes for a brainstorming session: If you’ve got a dozen people sitting around a table, expect a really long list of truly mediocre ideas.

So, what else can you do other than bribe a group of two to six people with pizza to unearth good ideas? So glad you asked.

You’re sitting there at your desk with a pit in your stomach. You know you really blew it–and your boss does, too. Maybe you forgot to follow up with an important client and they chose someone else’s proposal. Maybe you didn’t prepare the right documents in time for a super-important meeting. Or a careless typo you made on a spreadsheet or purchase order led to an expensive mistake.

Whatever it is, your boss isn’t happy. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you don’t need to start job-searching. In fact, there are a few simple steps you can take right away to rebuild the trust you’ve lost–as quickly as humanly possible. Here’s what to do and when to do it.

What comes to mind when you hear the term “facilitator”? A task manager hogging airspace up at the front of the room? Or thoughts like, “Ugh–okay, how do I get out of attending this workshop?”

But done right, facilitation isn’t about boring presentations. It’s a process for getting groups of people together to solve any problem. Good facilitators know how to jump right in, establish an objective, create a format packed with interactive opportunities for discussion, and lead groups of all sizes toward constructive solutions. And you don’t need a specific job title or a certain amount of experience to become an effective facilitator–you just have to develop a set of skills that gives structure and purpose to the otherwise unruly art of collaboration.

As workplaces become less hierarchical and more reliant on interpersonal problem-solving, rather than just tactical execution, facilitation is becoming a job skill you’ll need to rely on more and more. Here’s what you need to know to get started developing it.