The Meeting I Never Miss

By: Matt GoldbergWed Dec 19, 2007 at 9:23 AM

There are meetings that defy work, and meetings that define how you work. From Hollywood to Madison Avenue, we meet the people whose meetings make all the difference.

Audio/Visual:

Technology is key, primarily teleconferencing, because we're in a virtual community with many sites all over the world. I bring a laptop to take notes.

Who: Andy Rifkin, rifkinan@mattel.com
Company: Mattel
Title: Vice President, Technology and Design for Mattel Media
MINM: Brainstorming Session
The Players: Technographer/facilitator, executives, producers
Frequency: Monthly
Purpose: To come up with new products that take advantage of traditional play-patterns.
Why I Never Miss It: It's the source of fresh thinking.

Idea generation is a daily imperative for Andy Rifkin's group at $3.5 billion toymaker Mattel. Its mandate? To innovate a new class of technology toys and move classics like Barbie into the multimedia future. The group has turned brainstorming into a productive art to the tune of 12 new products (including the bestselling Barbie clothes-design software) last year alone.

Ground Rules

Every meeting has a single-theme agenda and is run by a facilitator who is never the person who called the meeting. The key is to have fun. We laugh constantly; everyone wants to be there.

Rites & Rituals

Setting: A collaborative environment equipped with computers and a projection system, usually off-site in a comfortable hotel room with couches.

Power Seat: We frequently make people change where they sit.

Dress Code: Casual.

Talking Stick

Everybody gets a chance to speak, but only one person speaks at a time. Nobody criticizes another person's concept. Nobody is allowed to take notes. Instead a technographer stands in the front of the room with a PC; he uses a projector with MS Word outliner to type in the main concepts as we talk. That person also acts as a facilitator: if he thinks that someone is dominating the floor then he will call them out and try to bring them home. When we feel like we're being unproductive, we play a quick game to breathe some life into the meeting.

Audio/Visual

Computer technography -- this allows everyone to be creative and contribute instead of taking in-depth notes. It also brings consensus because if anybody disagrees with what's on the wall, we edit it until everyone agrees.