Any time people come together in a meeting, we're not necessarily getting the best ideas; we're just getting the ideas of the best talkers.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When it's a sharing and improvisational meeting, where you're riffing off other people's ideas, that actually can be productive.
A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.
Conversations are the most direct way to connect with people.
It's no use imagining that bringing great writers together inevitably precipitates great conversation.
Everyone wants to talk, you've just got to find a way to get them to talk.
Meetings should be great - they're opportunities for a group of people sitting together around a table to directly communicate. That should be a good thing. And it is, but only if treated as a rare delicacy.
The more we can get together and talk about various perspectives, feelings, beliefs, the better.
Meetings should be like salt - a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkful. Too much salt destroys a dish. Too many meetings destroy morale and motivation.
The best meeting I ever went to was a meeting in France where the talk slots were 60 minutes long, but you were told to prepare a five-minute talk. It was absolutely great because the entire talk was a conversation between the speaker and the audience.
The best ideas start as conversations.