Idea Factory

My company was in the middle of a creative session with a manufacturing client. He immediately stood up after about half an hour and told us, "I can't handle all this sitting and talking. I won't allow this in my company."

We were a little shocked. The creative session was going well, a lot of new ideas were being discussed. The client continued,

"I've taken the chairs out of my conference rooms at the factory. That way my people can't sit around and waste time. Meetings are quick and then we go out and do our work in the factory."

At first that sounded pretty impressive. Maybe it was for his group. But we had to remind our client of one thing.

Our "factory" is our conference room. That's where we do our "work." This is where we create what our clients value and buy from us.

Our client understood and sat down again, this time with more enthusiasm. It got me to thinking. In companies like LaBov and Beyond, where we have to think and create for a living, it's critical that our meetings are valuable, well-run and focused. If not, we're wasting our Idea Factory and its valuable resources.


Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com