First Class School & Office Supplies' Blog

By EMILY MALTBY

Heather Logrippo says her employees didn’t seem too enthusiastic at first when she handed out construction paper and crayons and told them to find a quiet place for 30 minutes.

The unconventional assignment—in which workers were asked to use the crayons and paper to brainstorm a customer-incentive program—was part of an effort to make staff meetings more efficient, says Ms. Logrippo, owner and publisher of “Distinctive Homes,” a monthly magazine based in Boston. Ms. Logrippo believed the tools would help employees come back with colorful suggestions to present around the conference table.

“This was a situation where you couldn’t just Google the answer,” she says. “They came out with great ideas.”

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Dixon Schwabl

Employees at Dixon Schwabl Advertising use water guns to spray colleagues who pass negative remarks, an effort to quiet naysayers and foster more participation at meetings.

In the downturn, some small- business owners are looking for more creative ways to make conference-room time as efficient as possible, an effort they hope will ultimately trickle down to the company’s bottom line.

Many managers say fostering participation is a major challenge, particularly when the attendees with valuable ideas are too reserved or timid to speak up. Without their contributions, the meetings are less productive.

Dixon Schwabl Advertising Inc., in Rochester, N.Y., tries to lower the inhibitions of its 82 employees by arming them with water guns, which workers are instructed to bring to all meetings. Anyone who passes a negative comment at the meeting is bound to get wet.

“It helps them be more comfortable because no one will be criticized or scrutinized,” says Lauren Dixon, the marketing and advertising firm’s chief executive.

Anonymity can also help lower inhibitions. During meetings at cloud-computing firm Box.net Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., Jen Grant gives workers seven minutes to jot down as many thoughts as possible on Post-It notes, without having to write their names. When time is up, the suggestions are put on a wall for the employees to read and rearrange.

“I tell them to not think about whether the idea is dumb or too costly, which allows them to think as big as they can,” she says.

Other entrepreneurs are relying on technology to propel the meetings and keep the employees engaged.

Managers at Russell Construction Co. introduced a new device at a recent quarterly meeting that calculates the average salary of those in attendance and determines exactly how much the meeting is costing the company based on those figures.

“I don’t think people thought of time as an expense before,” says Angela Bagby, director of marketing and client relations for the 70-employee firm, which is based in Davenport, Iowa.

That initial 90-minute meeting cost the firm roughly $5,000, according to the $25 cost-management gadget, which is made by Bring TIM LLC. Since then, employees have used the device at smaller group meetings, helping to shave off as much as $100 per meeting, Ms. Bagby estimates.

Other small businesses are using special software to hold interactive meetings that end with tangible outlines and focus points.

AscendWorks LLC, a consulting firm in Austin, Texas, is using a program called Mindjet Catalyst that allows employees to write out the talking points of the meeting as they are being discussed. They can then easily manipulate the text, organizing it by category and subcategory.

“It’s like thinking out loud, except it’s on a screen,” says AscendWorks President Don Dalrymple.

Finis Price, a lawyer in Louisville, Ky., uses a visualization technology called Papershow to similarly engage his two paralegals, who work remotely.

“If I couldn’t verbally describe something, I’d just have to say, ‘You’ll see what I mean after I send it,’” says Mr. Price of his meetings prior to purchasing the technology last year. “Then, they’d call and inevitably have questions about it.”

Papershow, which is made by Canson Inc. and retails for about $200, works like a digital whiteboard with a special interactive pen. By using Web conferencing sites that recognize the Papershow technology, employees on their home computers can follow everything that Mr. Price draws and erases.

Mr. Price says he primarily uses the tool to create flow charts. “It really eliminates confusion,” he says.

Write to Emily Maltby at emily.maltby@wsj.com

I love this tactic for creative thinking and new ideas. Old school isn’t always the best school. The best ideas come from thinking outside-of-the-box.