Ways To Keep Remote Team Meetings Fresh And Creative

Our Business Operations team was wasting ~$16,000 per month on inefficient meetings (estimated by 5 hours per week x $100 per hour x 8 people). One simple change cut that out: we transitioned from verbal to visual. Here's what we did: BACKGROUND: When we went fully remote at Blip years ago, progress updates became a special kind of torture. Every "quick sync" turned into an hour of: - "Remember when we discussed..." - "Wait, which part are we changing?" - "No, I thought we agreed on..." Same conversations. Different day. Zero progress. THE SHIFT: Instead of talking about changes, we started drawing them. Using @lucid we mapped every single user action before meetings. Not high-level flows… every click, every decision point, every expected behavior. Now when our Supply head says "we're changing this," he points to one square. That's it. Meeting over in 15 minutes. THE SYSTEM: 1. Map the entire journey first (30-45 mins) - Every action documented - Every decision branch visible - One source of truth 2. Share the visual 24 hours before any meeting - Team comments directly on elements - Context builds asynchronously - Everyone arrives prepared 3. Run surgical discussions (15 mins vs 60) - Point to specific boxes - Click in and annotate live - Decisions stick because everyone sees the same thing 4. Track changes visually - Before/after comparisons side-by-side - Progress visible at a glance - No status meetings needed RESULTS: Month 1: Folks complained about "extra work" Month 2: Meetings cut in half Month 3: People started making diagrams without being asked The real magic: Async conversations actually reach conclusions now 😀 Someone screenshots a flow section, circles a box, drops it in Slack: "Change this?" Three replies later: Done. No meeting. No confusion. Just execution. LESSON: Remote teams don't need more meetings. They need better artifacts. When everyone sees the same picture, you stop explaining and start shipping. Draw first. Talk second!

Meetings aren’t for updates - they’re where your culture is being built… or broken. Meetings are key moments where distributed team members experience culture together. That makes every meeting a high-stakes opportunity. Yet most teams stay in default mode - using meetings for project updates instead of connection, ideation, debate, and culture-building. 3 ways to reduce meetings and make the remaining ones count… 1. Co-create a Team Working Agreement. Before you can reinforce values, your team needs to define them. I’ve spent hundreds of hours helping teams do this - and have seen measurable gains in team effectiveness. Key components: - Shared team goals - Defining team member roles - Agreed-upon behaviors - Communication norms (sync vs. async) 2. Begin meetings with a connection moment. Relationships fuel trust and collaboration. Kick things off with a check-in like: “What gave you energy this week?” Or tailor it to the topic. In a recent meeting on decision-making norms, we asked: “Speed or certainty - which do you value more when making decisions, and why?” 3. Make team values part of the agenda. Create a ritual to recognize teammates for demonstrating team behaviors. Ask the question: “Where did we see our values or team agreements show up this week?” And check in on where could the team have done better. Culture doesn’t happen by accident - especially when your teams are spread across time zones, WFH setups, and multiple office sites. Your meetings can become a powerful tool to build culture with intention.

Enhance Brainwork With The Six Thinking Hats Original Content Creator: Timothy Timur Tiryaki (Give him a follow) --------- Enhancing Meetings with Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats In my professional experience of working at P&G, Intel and Great Place to Work Inc., I've had a chance to actively use tools that foster creativity in meetings and bring in rich perspectives from a variety of styles. One of the transformative methods I've embraced is Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats, which has notably enriched the way my teams (nowadays my clients) and I engage in meetings. De Bono's methodology is straightforward yet powerful, involving six distinct colored hats that represent different styles of thinking: White Hat: Focuses on data and facts. Red Hat: Emphasizes emotions and feelings. Black Hat: Looks at critical judgment, pointing out barriers. Yellow Hat: Symbolizes positivity, exploring the merits and benefits. Green Hat: Stands for creativity and new ideas. Blue Hat: Manages the thinking process and ensures that guidelines are followed. Integrating these hats into meetings transforms the dynamic by structuring thinking and allowing the team to shift perspectives methodically. This approach not only accelerates the meeting process by reducing unnecessary conflict and circling but also enhances focus on each aspect of the problem separately. For example, using the Green Hat, we deliberately foster a creative environment where no idea is too outlandish. Following this with the Black and Yellow Hats allows the team to evaluate these ideas critically yet optimistically, ensuring a balanced view that takes into account potential issues and benefits. The Blue Hat plays a crucial role throughout the meeting, guiding the team's thought process and shifting between the hats as the situation demands. This orchestrated shifting of gears not only makes meetings more productive but also more inclusive, as different team members often find natural affinity with different types of thinking. Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats improves the decision-making process; it has also instilled a deeper level of respect and understanding among team members as they see and appreciate the diverse perspectives each hat brings. This tool has been instrumental in fostering both unity and innovation within teams. _______________ Original Content Creator: Timothy Timur Tiryaki (Give him a follow)