5 Creative Ways to Start a Meeting

Otherwise known as BRAINDRAINERS

The first 3–5 minutes of any meeting I facilitate starts with a Brain Drainer. The term originated from an amazing educator named Dr. Rita Brodnax who I had the pleasure to work within the late ’90s. She taught me in order for people to learn they have to defocus to refocus. Her brain research fueled the ways she presented. She explained the brain acts like a sponge and can only take so much “water” or information. It has to be “squeezed out” to learn something new. She started every meeting differently and was a model of engagement in the classroom and workshop. Some Brain Drainers were less than 30 seconds and some were up to a couple of minutes. Many involved talking to someone.

Here are 5 Creative Ways to start your next meeting that will get people talking — in a good way!

1. Use a Riddle

When participants came in I handed them a card. The card was one half of a matching pair.

The following message was up on the screen:

Can you figure out what A.A. Milne was referring to in this verse from his “When We Were Very Young” book?

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet, She wore her greenest…