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100 Power Up Your Mind

10 tips for holding brain-friendly meetings

If you want to get the best out of the minds around a table at any
meeting in which you are involved, here are some more ideas:

1 Always give advance notice of the subject of any meeting. Your brain likes
to make connections and to “join up the dots.” Giving it something
to think about in advance means that it will combine and link with
existing thought patterns and knowledge to create new ideas.
2 Make sure that meetings have a clear structure. The brain likes to put
things in order.
3 Use praise. Finding ways of praising people is likely to increase their
self-esteem and create an environment in which people give their
ideas. A praise to blame ratio of 4:1 is helpful.
4 Invest time in creating the right emotional state in participants. If your
mind is stressed, it will only operate at the basic level it would need
for survival. If we are not in a relaxed but alert state, then we will
not perform well.
5 Divide the content into smaller chunks. Our brains work better when
they can focus on specific elements. It may also be helpful to break
things up into smaller elements to aid memory.
6 Use humor. When we laugh our brains release neurotransmitters,
chemicals that boost alertness and recall.
7 Use dialog. Our brains thrive on feedback, of which dialog is a con-
stant and immediate source. Telling someone something in a meet-
ing does not mean that it has had any impact on their mind.
8 Specify outcomes and connect to previous and following meetings. The
brain’s love of connections and its ability to select what is relevant
mean that it is a good idea to give it something to work on after the
meeting. A mind map may be a better way of recording what hap-
pened than are traditional minutes.
9 Watch people’s concentration levels. While we all have different con-
centration spans, having a stretch break regularly means that the
brain gets plenty of oxygenated blood, its energy supply.
Nevertheless, sometimes, when the brain is really engaged, it may
be better to go with the flow.