Creativity must have value. Without value a thought or idea is just being different. I have participated over 120 meetings and a dozen Annual General Meetings. In those meetings, I have not found even one meeting where there is room for creative discussion. What is creative discussion? It is a discussion where every member participates not based on judgement, logic or argument. It is based on perception. Its solution must create value.

In any meeting the following 3 things must happen:

Notice of Meeting

This is the paper where members are invited to attend for the forthcoming meeting. The date, time and venue are stated in the notice of meeting. With this notice an agenda is attached with all other documents to be discussed in the meeting.

Agenda

Agenda is the most crucial factor for the meeting to be guided. Those things that need to be discussed must be itemised in the agenda.

Quorum

A quorum is formed if the majority members are present for the meeting. If there are 14 members then the present of 7 or more members form a quorum. Without a quorum any meeting is invalid.

Creative Discussion

Creative discussion is a substitute for a meeting. Meeting has an innate nature of being confrontational. To meet means a head on clash point. Meeting prepares you for being argumentative rather than seeking value.

Creative discussion is a form of contact and networking. It is about seeking a value rather than a solution. Most of our lives are about problems and solutions.

What do you need in a creative discussion?

A tree is the end product of a seedling. It is properly engineered with proper amount of water, sunlight and good soil. For creative discussion to happen we need to move away from notice of meeting, agenda and quorum. These emphasise on members’ presence, items to be deliberated and majority representation. In creative discussion we move towards notion and growth. There is no chairman for creative discussion. God does not think as He is perfect. But any human must think with creativity. The members are restricted to even in numbers: perhaps 12.

Notion

As against agenda, there should be only one notion. It is a situation where members need to look upon it as an opportunity rather than a problem. A problem will have a solution but at the expense of value. For example, a resident of a condominium parks at a no parking zone as he needs to attend to an urgent matter. If we take this as a problem, the likely solution is to initiate wheel clamping for non parking zone. Does this solution create value? It results in unhappiness. If we take this situation as a notion, we might come with a couple of value for the residents. Perhaps you might allocate 3 lots for such situations: red lot, green lot and yellow lot. Red lot can be used for 15 minutes, green lot for 10 minutes and yellow lot for 5 minutes in case a resident need to park his vehicle urgently.

A notion is a situation which calls for creation of value.

Growth

Solution is outdated. Growth is what we need. Look at nature: there is no solution in nature but there is growth. A seedling becomes a tree. Tree gives shade and comfort. We need three things for a plant to grow: water, sunlight and soil.

• Water is being flexible and adaptable:
• Sunlight being transparent and objective
• Soil being mouldable and can be transformed

The 12 members can be divided into water group, sunlight group and soil group. By this each group can contribute for the notion to grow into something of value.

Duration of creative discussion

If you have the opportunity to attend to any meeting, it is difficult to get a quorum unless the members are very enthusiastic. It is because the meeting is frequent and the duration of meeting will usually last for 3 to 4 hours. This also depends on the number of agenda to cover.

In creative discussion, we have only one notion per session and per session can not be more than an hour. By such conditions, we can bring our thoughts with quality and energetically.

Creative discussion creates value. A meeting on the other hand cultivates debate, argument, frustration and solution at the expense of giving an opportunity to perception.