The first part of any business meeting is like herding cats: creative minds and egos and hearts and souls each going its own way seeking the best solution from its own perspective need to "storm and norm" -- and that often takes too much time. Here is one way to turn your cats into salmon. Fast.
You have one minute: Hand each person four Post-it notes, and a pencil. On the first Post-it, list five foods you love. On the second, list five foods you loathe. On the third, list five places you love so much that you'd go there -- even if all you could eat were foods from your "yuck" list. On the fourth, list five people you'd find so fascinating that you'd talk to them, and forget to eat.
Time's up. New clock - five minutes: Post all the food lists on the wall, in no particular order. How food compatible is your team? Can you identify one list of foods that everyone likes? that everyone loathes? Using any of the listed foods, can you create a meal that would suit every palate and dietary issue of the people on your team?
Time's up. Five more minutes: Now, from the lists of locations, can the team agree on one place to go have that meal?
Four minutes: Finally, draw up a list of people to share the meal.
The rest of the meeting: Imagine that you, and your guests are in this amazing place, with this fabulous food. Now, introduce the challenge that your team is facing, and role play how these "guests" might offer perspective on the issues.
Make no attempt to keep everyone focused on the role play. If this exercise has been successful, the role play will drop away quickly, and the team will focus on the original goal of the meeting. The difference is that they will all now pull in the same direction, aware that they are on the same team, and with the ability to find commonality in even the strangest of subjects.
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