Brainstorming , meetings and meetings. How many times have you ever felt out of place? Are you afraid to come forward and have your say? Do you think your ideas are less brilliant than those of your colleagues?
Everything is normal. Many professionals experience these with anxiety and stress . Yet, often, they are important to bring together the talents and professionalism of a non-profit organization , in order to achieve pre-established goals or to come up with new ideas.
Let’s try to give you some advice on how to best approach your next meeting .
Punctuality and concentration
Stick to the schedule . It can be very annoying to have to delay a meeting because of a late party . In addition, it would make the climate more tense and nervous. And that would not help the lens. Not to mention that the time spent in a meeting is time subtracted from other activities: the delay accumulates more delay.
For the same reason, avoid multitasking . During brainstorming, focus your attention on the here and now : don’t reply to emails, don’t check your smartphone incessantly, and don’t reply to messages.
Be proactive
Translated: don’t be afraid to say bullshit. The goal of these meetings is to come up with winning ideas, not to be in competition with colleagues. For this reason, don’t be afraid to have your say, even if you think it might be a bad idea . Even if the proposal is not supposed to be effective, who knows, it could be an input for a colleague’s idea. In this way, even with an irrelevant observation, you would still have contributed to generating a good proposal.
Besides, who said it was a bad idea?
Don’t be bigots
The other side of the coin concerns the proposals made by others in the room. If you think a colleague has come up with a bad idea, it doesn’t do any good to point it out . If you really can’t help but dismiss a proposal that you consider wrong, use conciliatory formulas. For example ” I don’t think it can work in this particular context, but I think we’re on the right track ” . Or “Let’s keep this idea good for when we have a bigger budget ” .
Be ironic
Often this type of meeting could take a long time. It is therefore important that the atmosphere is relaxed and as informal as possible. Try to lighten the environment, softening the tones and creating a relaxed atmosphere. After all, we know that people work and think better if they are at ease .
You can make a few jokes from time to time. Or make your proposals in a less rigid tone. For example “I already know that you will fire me after what I am about to say, but in my opinion …” .
Sometimes the right idea is the simplest one
If you hear hoofs, it is most likely a horse and not a zebra. So why not say: horse?
It may seem trivial, but simple ideas are often the most effective ones. Remember that brainstorming is for putting together ideas and projects and not for making a good impression on managers and colleagues. Thinking constantly outside the box risks being counterproductive.
Archive rejected ideas
Write down everything, even the proposals that have been canceled. What is not relevant to a project can be successful in another context. Therefore, our advice is to write down all the proposals that have been made, even those that have not found an effective operational space. You never know, maybe in the near future they can come in handy .
