Thinking in Decision-Making

In group decision-making, due to the psychological interactions among group members, there is a tendency to yield to authority or the opinions of the majority, forming what is known as "groupthink." Groupthink weakens the critical spirit and creativity of the group, damaging the quality of decisions. To ensure the creativity of group decisions and improve decision quality, a series of methods have been developed in management to enhance group decision-making, with brainstorming being a typical example.

Requirements for Brainstorming#

Organizational Form

The number of participants is generally 5 to 10 people, preferably composed of individuals from different professions or positions;
The meeting time should be controlled to about 1 hour;
A facilitator should be appointed, who only leads the meeting and does not comment on the ideas presented. One to two recorders should be designated, who are required to carefully record every idea presented by participants, regardless of its quality.

Types of Meetings

Idea Development Type: This meeting is held to generate a large number of ideas and to explore various problem-solving approaches for a topic. Therefore, participants are required to be imaginative and have strong verbal expression skills.
Idea Validation Type: This meeting is held to summarize and convert numerous ideas into practical plans. Participants are required to be good at summarizing and analyzing judgments.

Preparation Before the Meeting

Clarify the meeting topic. The meeting topic should be communicated to participants in advance, allowing them to prepare;
Select a suitable facilitator. The facilitator should be familiar with and master the key points and operational elements of the technique, understanding the current status and development trends of the topic;
Participants should have a certain level of training and understand the principles and methods advocated by the meeting;
Pre-meeting softening training can be conducted, which involves breaking conventional thinking and changing perspectives for those lacking innovative training, to reduce cognitive inertia and liberate them from monotonous and tense work environments, allowing them to engage in brainstorming activities with full creative enthusiasm.

Meeting Principles

To allow participants to express themselves freely, inspire and motivate each other, and achieve high efficiency, the following principles must be strictly adhered to:

Criticism and comments are prohibited, and self-deprecation should also be avoided. No idea proposed by others can be criticized or obstructed. Even if one believes an idea is immature, wrong, or absurd, it should not be refuted; self-criticism is also not allowed. This mobilizes the enthusiasm of every participant psychologically and completely prevents the emergence of "killjoy statements" and "self-killing statements." Statements such as "This won't work at all," "Your idea is too outdated," "This is impossible," "This does not conform to a certain law," and "I have an immature opinion," "I have an idea that may not work," etc., are prohibited from appearing in the meeting. Only in this way can participants focus all their energy on expanding their thoughts in a fully relaxed state, inspired by others' ideas.
Focus on goals and pursue the quantity of ideas, the more the better. In the implementation of the intellectual stimulation method, everyone is required to propose ideas, and the more the better. The meeting aims to maximize the number of ideas generated.
Encourage clever use and improvement of others' ideas. This is the key to motivation. Each participant should inspire themselves from others' ideas, gain insights from them, supplement others' ideas, or combine several of others' ideas to propose new ideas, etc.
All participants are equal, and all ideas are recorded. Participants, whether experts in the field, employees, or scholars from other fields, as well as laypersons in the field, are treated equally; all ideas, regardless of size, even the most absurd ones, must be carefully recorded in full by the recorders.
Advocate independent thinking, and private conversations are not allowed to avoid disturbing others' thoughts;
Encourage free speech, express freely, and think freely. The meeting advocates free and uninhibited thinking, arbitrary imagination, and maximum expression. The newer and stranger the ideas, the better, as they can inspire good concepts.
Do not emphasize individual achievements; the overall interests of the group should be prioritized. Attention should be paid to and understanding of others' contributions, creating a democratic environment where no majority opinion hinders the emergence of new individual viewpoints, stimulating individuals to pursue more and better ideas.

Implementation Steps

Pre-meeting preparation: Ensure participants, the facilitator, and the topic task are all in place, and conduct soft training if necessary.
Idea Development: The facilitator announces the meeting topic and introduces relevant reference information; break through cognitive inertia and boldly make associations; the facilitator should control the time well, striving to obtain as many creative ideas as possible within the limited time.
Classification and organization of ideas: Generally divided into practical and fantasy types. The former refers to ideas that can currently be realized with existing technology and processes, while the latter refers to ideas that cannot currently be completed with existing technology and processes.
Improve practical ideas: For practical ideas, further validation and secondary development should be conducted using brainstorming methods to expand the scope of realization.
Further develop fantasy ideas: For fantasy ideas, further development should be conducted using brainstorming methods. Through further development, it is possible to transform the germination of creativity into mature practical ideas. This is a key step in brainstorming and a clear indicator of the quality of the method.

Facilitator Skills

The facilitator should understand various creative thinking techniques and methods, reiterate the principles and disciplines that must be strictly followed during the meeting to participants, and be good at stimulating members' thinking to keep the atmosphere relaxed and lively while adhering to the rules of brainstorming;

Allow participants to speak in turn, with each person briefly stating one creative idea per round, avoiding debates and uneven speaking;
Use appreciative and encouraging language and gestures, such as nodding with a smile, to encourage participants to generate more ideas, saying things like: "Yes, that's it!" "Great!" "Good idea! This is very beneficial for broadening our thinking!" etc.;
Prohibit the use of phrases like: "Someone has already said this!" "What will the actual situation be?" "Please explain what you mean." "This point is useful" "I don't appreciate that viewpoint." etc.;
Frequently emphasize the quantity of ideas, for example, aiming to generate 10 ideas within an average of 3 minutes;
When everyone seems to run out of ideas and there is a temporary stagnation, some measures can be taken, such as taking a few minutes break, allowing for self-chosen relaxation methods like walking, singing, drinking water, etc., before continuing with several rounds of brainstorming. Alternatively, give each person a picture unrelated to the problem and ask them to share the inspiration they gained from the picture.
Depending on the topic and actual situation, guide everyone to initiate waves of brainstorming. For example, if the topic is further development of a certain product, the first wave could focus on improving the product formula, the second wave on reducing costs, and the third wave on expanding sales. Similarly, for discussions on solutions to a specific problem, guide everyone to initiate a wave of "idea development," promptly capturing "turning points" and guiding timely entry into the wave of "idea validation."
Time management is crucial; the meeting should last about 1 hour, and the generated ideas should be no less than 100. However, the best ideas often emerge just as the meeting is about to conclude, so if the scheduled end time arrives, it can be extended by 5 minutes based on the situation, as this is when people are likely to propose good ideas. If no new ideas or viewpoints emerge within 1 minute, the intellectual stimulation meeting can be declared concluded or paused.

Principles of Brainstorming

External Judgment Principle. The evaluation of various opinions and plans must be reserved for the final stage; prior to that, no criticism or evaluation of others' opinions is allowed. Treat any idea seriously, regardless of its appropriateness or feasibility.
Encourage everyone to express their opinions freely. Create an atmosphere of freedom to inspire participants to propose various absurd ideas.
Pursue quantity. The more opinions there are, the greater the likelihood of generating good ideas.
Explore ways to complement and improve others' ideas. In addition to proposing their own opinions, participants are encouraged to supplement, improve, and synthesize ideas already proposed by others.
Conduct in cycles.
Each person should only propose one suggestion at a time.
If there are no suggestions, say "pass."
Do not blame each other.
Be patient.
Appropriate humor can be used.
Encourage creativity.
Combine and improve others' suggestions.

Reverse Brainstorming#

Reverse brainstorming (Anti-brain Storming), also known as questioning brainstorming or counter-brainstorming, is a group discussion format that focuses on opposing opinions to generate new ideas. Its main purpose is to identify the flaws in a certain concept and anticipate the negative consequences if that concept is implemented. Reverse brainstorming is similar to brainstorming, with the only difference being that criticism is allowed in reverse brainstorming. Brainstorming is used to stimulate the creation of new ideas and thoughts, while reverse brainstorming reveals potential problems in a certain concept through a critical lens. In fact, the basic point of this method is to discover the shortcomings of creativity through questioning. For example, "What are the possible ways this idea could fail?" Since the focus of discussion is on opposing opinions, the facilitator should pay attention to maintaining participants' morale. Reverse brainstorming can be used before other creative methods, effectively stimulating creative thinking. During the reverse brainstorming process, various problems associated with a certain idea must first be identified, and then discussions on how to solve these problems should be conducted.

Steps for Reverse Brainstorming#

The basic operational steps involve having group members critique a certain idea or concept until all ideas have been thoroughly criticized, and then following the classic brainstorming procedure, the brainstorming group re-examines these ideas to seek solutions for the identified flaws and select the ideas with the fewest shortcomings that are most likely to solve the problem for implementation.

The first stage requires participants to question every proposed idea and provide comprehensive comments. The focus of the comments is to study all limiting factors that hinder the realization of the idea. During the questioning process, some feasible new ideas may emerge. These new ideas may include arguments for why previously proposed ideas cannot be realized, existing limiting factors, and suggestions for eliminating those limiting factors. The structure is usually: "The XX idea is unfeasible because... To make it feasible, we must...".
The second stage involves compiling a list of comments and a list of feasible ideas for each group or each idea. The principles that should be followed in questioning brainstorming are the same as those in direct brainstorming, except that affirmative comments on existing ideas are prohibited, while criticism and new feasible ideas are encouraged. During the questioning brainstorming process, the facilitator should first briefly introduce the content of the problem being discussed and provide a concise overview of various systematic ideas and plans to focus participants' attention on a comprehensive evaluation of the discussed problem. The questioning process continues until there are no more issues to question. All evaluation opinions and feasible ideas extracted during the questioning should be specifically recorded.
The third stage involves evaluating the evaluation opinions extracted during the questioning process to form a final list of feasible ideas for solving the discussed problem. The evaluation of opinions is as important as questioning the discussed ideas. This is because, during the questioning stage, the focus is on studying all limiting factors that hinder the implementation of ideas, and these limiting factors should also be given significant consideration during the idea generation stage.

Is Brainstorming Really Useful?#

Reasons why people believe brainstorming is useful:

Associative Reaction. Association is the fundamental process of generating new ideas. In the process of collective discussion, every new idea proposed can trigger associations in others. A series of new ideas can emerge in succession, creating a chain reaction and forming a pile of new concepts, providing more possibilities for creatively solving problems.
Enthusiastic Infection. In an unrestricted environment, collective discussion can stimulate enthusiasm. Everyone speaks freely, influences each other, and creates a wave that breaks the constraints of established concepts, maximizing creative thinking ability.
Competitive Awareness. In a competitive environment, everyone strives to speak first, continuously activating their thinking machines to seek unique insights and novel ideas. Psychological principles tell us that humans have a competitive spirit, and in a competitive environment, the efficiency of psychological activities can increase by 50% or more.
Personal Desire. In the process of collective discussion to solve problems, the freedom of individual desire, free from any interference and control, is very important. One principle of brainstorming is that hasty comments should not be criticized, and even any doubtful expressions, actions, or facial expressions are not allowed. This allows everyone to express themselves freely and propose a large number of new ideas.

The term "brainstorming," which sounds impressive, has somewhat lost its original meaning. Originally intended to stimulate team creativity, it often leads to fewer ideas as discussions progress, and mentioning "brainstorming" can cause headaches. Rest assured, if you feel this way, you are definitely not alone. A recent survey indicates that most people engaged in creative work feel that brainstorming is a complete waste of time. A study conducted by Yale University in 1958 found that individuals perform significantly better when working alone than in team brainstorming sessions. Why does brainstorming fail to work? There are four explanations:

Collective Laziness. When people work as a team rather than individually, there is a tendency to exert less effort. This is what we often refer to as "cutting corners." Due to the bystander effect, the sense of urgency diminishes. We feel that the same work may also be completed by other colleagues in the team.
Social Anxiety. People worry about the opinions of other team members regarding their ideas, which can be referred to as evaluation apprehension. Similarly, when team members perceive others in the team as more competent, their performance tends to decline. This issue is particularly pronounced for introverted or relatively insecure members.
Regression to Mediocrity. This refers to the phenomenon where the most talented members of a team lower their performance standards to align with the overall level of the team, accommodating those who perform poorly. This effect is especially evident in sports. If you train with someone less capable than you, your level will decline, and you will fall into the same mediocre category as your opponent.
Production Inhibition. Regardless of the size of the team, if everyone wants their opinions to be heard, each person can only express one opinion at a time. Research shows that a team of 6-7 people is the optimal size for ensuring the quantity of suggestions expressed. Beyond this number, as the team size increases, the number of ideas proposed by each person tends to decrease.

Considering the flaws of brainstorming, why is it still so widely used? There are two main reasons:

As the specialization of the workforce deepens, companies find that employees have different professional abilities to contribute. If solving a problem benefits from different types of knowledge, then theoretically, bringing the right people together should enhance the diversity of perspectives and lead to better solutions. However, in practice, this method requires careful selection of members and painstaking collaboration.
Even if the team cannot generate more and better ideas, brainstorming undoubtedly appears more democratic than other methods. It ensures that fresh ideas are continuously introduced. Regardless of the quality of these ideas, the quantity is guaranteed first.

Although collective brainstorming may not yield the most brilliant ideas, it is not entirely useless. Research indicates that the value of brainstorming lies in team building rather than tactical meetings. The principles of positivity, openness, and borrowing ideas from others advocated by brainstorming can enhance team cohesion and trust.

Where Do True Creativity and Innovation Come From?

The "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" discusses problem-solving and investigation: "Investigation is like a ten-month pregnancy, while solving problems is like giving birth in one morning; investigation is the precursor to problem-solving."

True innovation is not something that novices can stumble upon through aimless brainstorming; it comes from a comprehensive and profound understanding of the problem. Therefore, the greater the innovation, the more it requires long-term accumulation and deep understanding.

What Are the Alternatives to Brainstorming?#

In response to the issues associated with brainstorming, some teams have proposed new solutions:

Brain-writing

Brain-writing is a variant of brainstorming where members write down their ideas on paper during the meeting instead of verbally expressing them all at once. Members record their ideas while passing these notes around the group, reading each other's thoughts and continuing to write down new ideas. This collaborative approach retains the constructive interaction of the group while avoiding the pitfalls of verbal brainstorming.

Sprinting

The general idea of design sprints is to gather a small team, free up a week, and then rapidly move from defining the problem to product testing.

On the first day, create a "problem map."
On the second day, each person individually sketches their ideas.
On the third day, the team decides which sketch idea is the best.
On the fourth day, build a real prototype together.
On the fifth day, find five target consumers to test the prototype.

This is like fast-forwarding to the future to see what your final product will look like when it hits the market.

Project Kickoff Meeting#

The main purpose of a project kickoff meeting is to:

Define the project and its key team members;
Clarify the roles and responsibilities of team members in the project;
Briefly discuss relevant content of the project.

The main topics discussed in the project kickoff meeting include:

Project overview
Project scope and deliverables
Overall project plan and schedule
Project organizational structure
Project assumptions and risks
Project documentation storage and archiving requirements

Project Planning Meeting#

The project planning meeting is convened and chaired by the product manager, with project team members participating. The product manager decides the level of detail for the project plan based on the size of the project and its importance to the organization. The main purposes of the project planning meeting are:

Develop a detailed project plan;
Assign project tasks: clearly allocate work tasks to specific team members. For each task, the responsible person and the estimated completion date must be specified, and the responsible person must make a commitment in person;
Ensure that team members have a comprehensive understanding of the project.

The main content of the project planning meeting includes:

Determine milestones based on WBS, further define project activities and tasks;
Forecast the duration of activities and tasks, and assign activities and tasks to team members;
Discuss methods for completing activities and tasks;
Determine the interrelationships and sequence of activities and tasks, and develop a project schedule based on the project timeline;
Develop project cost plans, quality plans, communication plans, risk control plans, and procurement plans, etc.

Project Status Meeting#

The project status meeting is usually convened and chaired by the product manager. Participants generally include all or part of the project team members, clients, and project leaders from higher management. Project status/review meetings should be held regularly.

The main purposes of the project status meeting are:

Introduce the progress of the project;
Determine whether the project is deviating from the schedule, and if so, what measures should be taken;
Explain the reasons for any deviations from the schedule and how to prevent such deviations in future work;
Report any problems discovered during project execution and potential issues, how to resolve identified problems, and how to prevent potential problems from occurring;
Highlight matters that should draw the attention of clients or project leaders, such as documents that the client may not have signed yet.

The topics to be discussed in the project status/review meeting include:

Work completed since the last meeting, clarifying key project milestones achieved;
Project cost, schedule, and scope status;
Progress: Compare the completion status of work with the baseline plan, ensuring that the completion status is up to date;
Forecast: Based on the current progress and tasks that need to be completed, predict the project completion date and project completion cost, and compare them with project goals and baseline plans;
Variance: Clarify the differences between the actual project cost and schedule and the baseline plan. Variances can be positive—such as completing the plan ahead of schedule—or negative—such as failing to complete the plan on time or exceeding the budget. Identify the issues causing negative variances. Corrective measures: In some cases, corrective measures can be proposed in the project status meeting to obtain approval from clients or management, such as obtaining authorization for overtime to catch up on the project schedule. In other cases, the product manager may request a separate meeting to discuss corrective measures.

Problem-Solving Meeting#

When project team members discover problems or potential issues during the project, the product manager should decide whether to convene a problem-solving meeting based on the criteria established at the beginning of the project (based on the size of the problem, its potential impact on the project, etc.). If a meeting is necessary, the product manager must decide who should participate. These problems should not wait until the next project status meeting to be resolved. Early detection and resolution of problems are critical to the success of the project.

The content of the problem-solving meeting mainly involves adopting a good problem-solving method. The steps for solving problems include:

Describe the problem;
Identify and determine the causes of the problem;
Identify possible solutions;
Evaluate each feasible solution;
Determine the best solution;
Revise the project plan, paying attention to the impact of the solution on other areas of the project;
Implement the solution;
Determine whether the problem has been resolved.

In addition to achieving specific purposes for each type of meeting, the product manager can also achieve the following objectives through these meetings:

Provide opportunities to correct, update, and enhance the knowledge of the project team, leading to more accurate cost and schedule plans and performance status reports.
Help team members identify their personal efforts and how their contributions can become part of achieving project goals, and understand how their individual success will enhance the success of the team.
Increase team members' commitment to the project. When team members participate in decision-making during meetings, they are more likely to accept those decisions and work towards them. Often, people oppose a decision not because of the content of the decision itself, but because they were not consulted about it. Furthermore, team decisions are less likely to be questioned than individual decisions. This enhances team cohesion, making people feel the existence of the project team and truly work together as a team.
Make the project team aware of the leadership role in managing the current project.
Provide team members with an opportunity to showcase their creativity in solving project problems in specific environments.

Before convening a meeting, the product manager must define the meeting objectives. These objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, and result-oriented. The product manager should clarify the roles of all project team members in the meeting and even rotate these roles so that each member has the opportunity to gain experience and practice leading meetings.

Frequency of Project Meetings#

There should be a reasonable balance between the frequency of project meetings and their potential benefits. The frequency of meetings is related to the project lifecycle. During the concept and feasibility stages, more planning meetings should be held to reach a consensus on the final goals and methods to achieve those goals. During this stage, client needs should be fully addressed. However, once the concept is finalized, team members will engage in detailed design, implementation planning, and product development, and the number of meetings should be reduced. However, the frequency of status meetings may increase during the implementation planning, product development, and project closeout phases, as many things need to be coordinated at that time. Generally, review meetings are beneficial in avoiding excessive time and resource usage during project implementation and later stages.

Here are some practical guidelines for reducing the number of meetings. Before convening a meeting, the product manager should first answer the following questions:

What are the main matters (problems or opportunities) that require a meeting?
What are the facts or assumptions that caused the problem? What are the possible opportunities?
What are the potential alternatives? What are their costs and benefits?
What suggestions can be provided to participants to address the current problem?
What might happen if a meeting is not convened?

Answering these questions may make you realize that there is no need to hold a meeting at all.

How to Manage Meetings Efficiently#

Managing meetings is an important management function. This includes planning, organizing, guiding, and controlling. A well-managed meeting is an effective way to share information, clarify direction, and eliminate ambiguity. It is beneficial for coordinating team members' efforts and obtaining immediate feedback on project matters, providing a collective way to solve project problems and seize opportunities. The meeting facilitator creates an appropriate team atmosphere through planning, leading, and guiding the meeting. He/she must clarify expectations for the meeting. Based on the goals the project aims to achieve, the facilitator must guide, clarify, control, summarize, and evaluate the meeting results. If the facilitator speaks too much during the meeting, it may become inefficient. The facilitator's influence depends on participants' recognition of his/her efforts to achieve the meeting goals and his/her skills and efficiency in helping participants reach those goals. Meetings can be inefficient or completely waste time, especially when the product manager makes some common mistakes:

Convening too many or too few meetings;
Neglecting to distribute the meeting agenda in advance;
Failing to invite decision-making managers;
Failing to coordinate with the main speakers at the meeting;
Spending too much time on trivial matters;
Failing to assign activity tasks to specific individuals.

The success of project meetings depends on various factors. These include the type of meeting (serious or informal), the formality of the meeting (formal or informal), the degree of advance planning, and the level of authority demonstrated by the facilitator. The product manager must be aware of these factors and utilize them appropriately to manage meetings effectively.

Good meetings produce results and allow everyone to execute as planned, while bad meetings waste everyone's time. A typical characteristic of a bad meeting is that someone is busy checking emails, WeChat, or playing with their phone during the meeting.

Preparation Before the Meeting#

"Preparation leads to success; lack of preparation leads to failure." As the meeting organizer, some preparatory work is necessary before the meeting.

Confirm Ideal Outcomes

Every meeting must have a theme. What is the purpose of the meeting? Is it to solve a problem, discuss a product plan, or synchronize project progress? Only by clearly understanding the purpose of the meeting can we accurately assess whether the objectives were achieved afterward. Therefore, before the meeting, we need to make some expectations for the meeting's outcomes. Here are some points to stimulate your thinking:

What kind of decisions or consensus do you expect to reach in the meeting?
What positive impacts will these decisions or consensus have within and outside the company?
What problems may arise if a decision or consensus cannot be reached? How serious are these problems?
What reasons (people or difficulties) might prevent the meeting from achieving the ideal outcome?
How do you define a successful meeting (e.g., having executable plans or task outputs, or everyone reaching a consensus)?

Assess the Necessity of the Meeting

After answering the above questions, the next step is not to rush into convening a meeting with everyone, but to assess the necessity of the meeting.

For example, if the purpose of the meeting is to inform everyone about the current project progress and the planning for the next phase, we need to consider whether a meeting is necessary. Can an email achieve the purpose? Can project management tools be used for sharing? If so, then there is no need for a meeting, as everyone's time is precious, and we should not waste time on "listening to meetings." Similarly, many internet companies have adopted "10-minute daily stand-up meetings" to communicate tasks completed yesterday and tasks to be completed today. It is also worth considering whether daily meetings are necessary or if weekly reports or other better tools can be used to present work tasks.

Since meetings consume the same working time for everyone, if other more efficient and economical methods can solve the issue, there is no need to hold a meeting. So, under what circumstances do we need to convene a meeting? Here are some judgment principles:

Time is urgent, and information must be synchronized to everyone in a very short time.
Relevant personnel must be gathered to solve pressing issues.
Relevant departments (personnel) must reach a consensus face-to-face for matters to progress.
Divergent thinking work must be discussed through face-to-face brainstorming to develop feasible solutions.
Face-to-face discussions are necessary to eliminate differences between departments for the project to advance.

Invite Only Suitable People to Attend

Everyone's time is precious, especially in startups where time is measured in seconds. Some individuals without an entrepreneurial spirit enjoy meetings because it allows them to put down their work—taking a break from being busy. Such individuals do not need to be summoned to the meeting room.

In most cases, these individuals do not need to be invited to the meeting:

They only need to know the meeting's results or execution plans; an email would be more useful for them.
Someone from the same department is already participating, and that person can represent the department's opinions.
Their role is to provide necessary information for the meeting (e.g., data), but they do not need to participate in discussions.
They only play a role in a few topics, and a separate small meeting can be held for them.

Therefore, the individuals we invite should be those who can participate in most topics and express opinions and engage in discussions. If a person is merely listening, they should not be called to the meeting; on one hand, they will be busy doing their own work during the meeting, making others feel awkward, and on the other hand, it is a waste of their time. Additionally, those directly affected by the meeting results and those involved in formulating execution plans should also be invited.

As the meeting facilitator, you must 100% confirm the list of participants before the meeting and notify them in advance. Please respect everyone's time; your project is not the only urgent and important one.

Pre-Meeting Information Synchronization and Task Distribution

The duration of a meeting should not be too long; in my experience, meetings lasting over 2 hours become inefficient. There are many reasons for inefficiency, one key reason being that participants do not prepare in advance, leading to everyone opening their computers to find information during the meeting, and the facilitator spending a lot of time synchronizing information. This work should be done before the meeting.

Before the meeting, each participant should receive an email informing them:

What problem we encountered and why we are holding the meeting?
What is the ideal outcome of the meeting?
What basic information does everyone need to understand before the meeting?
What materials does each person need to prepare before the meeting?
What preliminary thoughts and needs do they have?

At the same time, you should have private conversations with core participants before the meeting:

Whether they need to know additional information that is not convenient to share with everyone.
Understand if they have any special needs.
Clearly define what materials each person needs to prepare one-on-one, rather than just sending a group email.

This is similar to project management principles; in addition to ensuring everyone is synchronized with information, it is also essential to ensure that each person is well-prepared for the meeting.

Develop an Agenda and Communicate It

Once we have completed information synchronization and collected relevant needs, we can develop the meeting agenda based on the meeting goals. In addition to clearly defining the topics, time, and responsible persons for each segment, the order of the agenda should also be considered. When considering the agenda order, I generally follow two principles:

Gradual progression and logical relevance. Let the issues discussed deepen step by step.
Topics with more participants should be placed at the front, decreasing thereafter, allowing individuals who do not need to participate in the entire discussion to return to work.

Once the agenda is finalized, we can send an email to all participants, allowing everyone to make additions. Sometimes, an agenda developed by one brain may not be sufficiently comprehensive.

Privately Address Potential "Disturbers"

During meetings, there may be some "disturbers." They are not intentionally disruptive but may prolong the meeting and make other participants feel like they are wasting time.

For example, if the purpose of the meeting is to determine the development progress of the next product version, and while everyone is discussing the schedule, one person suddenly jumps up and says, "I think the features of this version are wrong; it shouldn't be done this way. Discussing the schedule now is meaningless; we should go back to discussing the features."

At this point, as the meeting facilitator, you have two choices: interrupt their speech and continue discussing the schedule, which may make them unhappy and lead to passive participation or leaving; or let them speak, which may frustrate others since the schedule has already been half-discussed.

Regardless of the choice, the impact on the meeting is negative. A better approach is to have private conversations with those who may "disturb" before the meeting, clearly stating that the product features have been locked in, and the meeting is focused on discussing progress without changes to the features; the company has confirmed this direction and will not change it, and we should trust the company's decisions.

How to identify these potential "disturbers"? On one hand, observe their personalities; on the other hand, you can observe their work habits in the agenda to find clues.

Prepare Meeting Room Equipment 10 Minutes in Advance

Don't waste time during the meeting looking for a VGA adapter or discovering you can't operate the projector at the start of the meeting. As the meeting facilitator, you should book the meeting room in advance and prepare all necessary props and test all equipment needed for the meeting.

The reason is simple: meetings need to be efficient. Don't waste everyone's time on something that only requires 10 minutes of one person's time.

Meeting Techniques#

How to encourage everyone to contribute ideas during the meeting rather than remain silent? How to keep the meeting focused on the topic instead of letting those who are good at expressing lead the pace? These meeting techniques need to be mastered one by one so that we can achieve our ideal goals within the limited time.

Basic Communication Principles

A good meeting facilitator needs to have good communication skills. Many books and articles on how to communicate and speak well mention these basic interactive communication principles:

Maintain self-esteem and enhance confidence.
Listen carefully and respond kindly.
Seek help and encourage participation.
Share opinions and communicate openly.
Provide support and encourage accountability.

Most people have used these principles to some extent during meetings and communication. Briefly discussing the role of these five principles in meetings (assuming you are the facilitator):

Maintaining self-esteem means that when participants show negativity or lack confidence, you should encourage them, helping them build confidence so they can actively participate in subsequent discussions. Often, praise is necessary. For example, when a newcomer timidly expresses an idea, even if their opinion is average, to encourage them, you might say, "That's a good idea; let's record it."
Listening carefully and responding kindly is a basic principle for ensuring the meeting proceeds smoothly. No one likes their comments to be ignored by others, even if they are expressing themselves emotionally. As the facilitator, when you encounter someone who is very angry, you can listen carefully to their comments, soothe their emotions, and then gently restate their points in your own words, making it easier for others to accept.
Seeking help is a good way to encourage participation. Some people may stop speaking during the meeting, which is not the desired outcome. You can ask them questions to re-engage them. For example, after the previous person has finished speaking, you can ask, "What do you think of XX's proposal?" This is not a good way to encourage participation because the other person can respond passively, saying they think it's fine. Instead, you can change your approach to seek help: "In XX's proposal, YY was mentioned, which is your area of responsibility. How can you support XX?" This way, they may not be able to respond passively.
Honesty is essential in relationships, and the same applies to meetings. If you are honest with others, they are likely to be honest with you, allowing the meeting to identify fundamental issues and resolve them at their root. If everyone is evasive, only partially expressing their views for fear of others taking credit, it is not beneficial for the company. As the meeting facilitator, you should lead by example, expressing your views and information honestly, and then encourage others to communicate openly.
Providing support and encouraging accountability means that as the meeting facilitator, you may not be the project leader, or the project may be divided into many smaller projects, each with its own responsible person. You should encourage everyone to take on small responsibilities within the project, fostering a sense of responsibility in their participation. However, sometimes some individuals may be hesitant to take on responsibilities, and appropriate encouragement is needed. For example, you might say, "XX, you are most familiar with this part of the work; you should take it on. If there are any resource issues, feel free to communicate with me, and I will coordinate to allocate resources for you."

Starting the Meeting

After familiarizing yourself with some communication principles, let's officially start the meeting.

The first thing to do at the meeting is for the convener, i.e., the facilitator, to open the meeting. Although you have already sent an email to everyone stating the purpose and ideal goals of the meeting, it is still necessary to emphasize these points before entering the discussion. You need to emphasize:

The ideal outcome of the meeting.
The significance of achieving the ideal outcome: its benefits for the company, the team, each individual, and clients and the market.
The potential negative consequences and serious repercussions if the ideal outcome is not achieved.
Topics that will not be discussed in this meeting.
The meeting agenda.

The fourth point is particularly important; everyone's time is precious, and do not discuss matters outside the agenda during the meeting, especially when participants have not prepared for those topics.

Explaining the Issues

Next, we will discuss each item on the agenda one by one. Before discussing the proposals, you should synchronize the information, questions, and issues you collected before the meeting with everyone.

This process is best done by encouraging the corresponding responsible persons to speak rather than doing all the talking yourself. Since you have already asked the relevant responsible persons to prepare the necessary materials for the meeting, you should let them present the data, facts, and issues from their perspectives.

Once the corresponding responsible persons have explained the issues, encourage everyone to participate in the discussion. The discussion should focus on the issues themselves, and everyone will express different views based on their positions. Other department members may help the speaker identify the root of the problem. This discussion phase should be open and equal.

Once the issues have been thoroughly analyzed, we will move on to the third step, which is "forming multiple proposals."

Forming Multiple Proposals

After analyzing the issues, it is time to seek solutions.

At this point, you can ask if anyone has a solution. If someone does, let them propose it and discuss the proposal, allowing everyone to point out potential problems with the proposal and whether there are better solutions.

If no one has a solution, as the meeting facilitator, you should propose a solution yourself. Your proposed solution does not have to be the best; your goal is to stimulate discussion. Sometimes, you can even propose a solution that you believe is unfeasible to spark discussion among everyone.

When soliciting proposals from participants, try to use open-ended questions rather than yes-or-no questions. For example, when XX proposes a solution, you can directly ask YY. A better way to ask is not, "Do you have any thoughts on XX's proposal?" but rather, "What concerns and thoughts do you have about XX's proposal?" or "XX's proposal has some unresolved issues; YY, how do you think we should address this problem?"

After the entire discussion concludes, multiple solutions will generally be formed.

Reaching Consensus

In the fourth step, we need to select the best solution from the multiple proposals formed in the third step and reach a specific execution plan.

The best solution should be the one closest to the ideal outcome, not one insisted upon by a minority or one decided by voting. As the facilitator, you should always keep the ideal outcome of the meeting in mind, starting from the results to choose the most suitable solution, and involve everyone in the process of adjusting the proposal.

Once the proposal is determined, the next step is to discuss the specific execution details. These may include:

The responsible persons and division of tasks for each item.
Which departments will participate and what additional resources need to be coordinated by company leadership.
The final timeline for achieving the goals.
Key checkpoints for important matters (milestones).

At this point, one agenda item is complete, and subsequent agenda items can repeat these three steps.

Meeting Summary

After all agenda items have been discussed, summarizing and expressing gratitude is very necessary.

Before the meeting concludes, there are seven points that need to be addressed:

Review all decisions and consensus reached during the meeting.
Review all determined execution plans.
Have the responsible persons for the plans restate their responsibilities and execution timelines.
Define the communication methods for the project moving forward, such as daily morning meetings, using Trello, WeChat communication, etc.
Suggest that different departments and individuals privately discuss the execution details.
Reiterate the project's goals and encourage all participants.
Thank everyone for taking the time to attend the meeting and express confidence in the project.

Thus, the offline meeting process has concluded, but the entire meeting process is not over; there are two things that still need to be done.

Post-Meeting Matters#

The discussions in the meeting room do not mean the end of the meeting; often, this is just the beginning of the project. To better advance the project and ensure everyone is clear about their responsibilities, two things must be done.

Meeting Records

A person should be designated to take meeting minutes, and the records should be sent to everyone after the meeting. The recorder should preferably not be the facilitator, as the facilitator needs to focus on communication and advancing work, and taking minutes can be distracting.

A good meeting record should be:

Established in advance using proficient office software to create a basic format for meeting records, allowing for direct input during the meeting without worrying about formatting, layout, or typos.
Recording audio simultaneously (if conditions allow).
After the meeting, the recorder should reorganize the notes into a structured format and send it to everyone. The term "structured" means that everyone can clearly and quickly review the meeting and clarify responsibilities.

In addition to serving as a memorandum, the necessity of meeting records lies in their ability to hold individuals accountable and prevent deviations from the planned course.

Follow-Up

Since the meeting facilitator is often the project leader, after the meeting concludes, you also need to continuously follow up on progress, especially on the first day after the meeting. You need to ensure that everyone is working according to the plans established the previous day. At this time, a project management software may be necessary, and we generally use Teambition and Trello for task management.

At the same time, you also need to plan for the next meeting, determining when to hold it based on achieving certain milestones or encountering specific problems.

The above outlines some detailed implementation guidelines for pre-meeting preparation, in-meeting control, and post-meeting summary and follow-up. Of course, during the meeting process, we may encounter various special situations and difficulties. How should we respond to these special situations?

Handling Special Situations#

If the meeting proceeds according to the previous process, that would be ideal. However, there are often difficult situations encountered during meetings, such as:

Conflicts arising between participants during discussions, potentially escalating to physical confrontations.
Certain individuals persistently insisting on their views and attempting to dominate the meeting, regardless of the discussion.
Some individuals' personal habits may lower the quality of the meeting, such as constantly playing with their phones.
Someone receiving a phone call in the middle of the meeting, causing the meeting to be interrupted while waiting for them to finish.
When a solution is reached, some individuals display extreme negativity, even contemplating resignation.
Some individuals speaking for too long, causing others to become impatient.
In some issues, multiple parties remain deadlocked, unable to reach a resolution.

For these issues, here are some intervention suggestions:

Emphasize the Meeting Agenda. When participants shift from discussion to conflict, we can reiterate the ideal outcome of the meeting, pulling them back from the conflict between two individuals and returning to the discussion.
Encourage Turn-Taking. Taking turns to speak is a good way to interrupt monopolizing speech. When one person is rambling on and others are becoming impatient, you can use an appropriate communication method to interrupt their speech. For example, you might say, "Sorry to interrupt, but we only have 1 hour for this meeting, and we must complete the entire agenda. Let's hear XX's opinion first, and then you can continue sharing your thoughts afterward."
Use Summarization to Interrupt Monopolizing Speech. Using summarization to interrupt monopolizing speech is a better method. For example, in the previous situation, you could say, "I understand your point is XXXXX; does anyone else have any comments?"
Emphasize Meeting Rules. When noticing someone continuously interrupting others or playing with their phone or taking calls during the meeting, you can emphasize the meeting rules, requiring everyone not to interrupt others during their speeches and asking everyone to put their phones away. If they need to take a call, they should leave the meeting room.
Break Time. Breaks can address two issues. If certain individuals persistently insist on their views, hindering the normal progress of the meeting, you can have a private conversation with them during the break. The conversation can follow the communication techniques mentioned earlier to ensure the meeting can continue smoothly. Another issue that can be resolved is the negativity of certain individuals. You can privately stand in their shoes and explain how the proposal may negatively impact them, but if the proposal is successful, it will actually benefit them, thus building their confidence.
Postpone Problem Resolution. If certain issues cannot be resolved during the meeting, consider postponing their resolution. Often, after everyone calms down, progress can be made, either by finding a better solution or by one party cooling down and making some compromises. There is no need to waste everyone's time on issues that cannot be resolved during the meeting.

Samsung's Efficient Meeting Principles:

Every meeting must have a theme;
Every theme must have an agenda;
Every agenda must have a resolution;
Every resolution must have follow-up;
Every follow-up must yield results;
Every result must have accountability;
Every accountability must be transparent.

22-Minute Meetings#

This is a guide for keeping meetings within 22 minutes, with specific content as follows:

Set a 22-Minute Meeting – Who says meeting times should be half an hour or an hour? Is there data supporting such meeting durations? Of course not. Thirty or sixty minutes are not enough for everyone to articulate and debate their viewpoints; on average, each person needs an hour to clarify their thoughts. In reality, not all meetings can be kept to 22 minutes, but many can be, and we should try to keep meeting times as short as possible.
Have a Goal-Oriented Agenda – An agenda with a clear goal will enhance the meeting's effectiveness and focus. Consider writing the agenda on a whiteboard, highlighting key points to continually remind everyone of the meeting's objectives.
Send Meeting Invitations 3 Days in Advance – Although this may be a burden for the meeting organizer, it minimizes costs for team members. Never let a meeting turn into a time for everyone to familiarize themselves with documents; doing so punishes those who prepared for the meeting. (Note: Personal tasks should also be communicated 24 hours in advance.)
Start on Time – How many meetings actually start on time? The answer is almost none. Some situations may arise because programs like Outlook do not have the function to set multiple meeting time intervals. To repay the daily debt of meeting time, keeping meetings within 22 minutes allows enough time for buffering and breaks.
Stand During the Meeting – Standing during meetings can remind everyone not to complicate the meeting or divert it to another goal. Speak your viewpoint or needs, or remain silent. If disagreements arise during the meeting, they can be addressed afterward.
No Laptops, Just a Facilitator and a Note-Taker – If you can ensure the meeting is completed within 22 minutes, then you do not need to bring any unrelated items. You need to focus on listening. Only one person should facilitate, and one person should take notes.
No Phones or Other Distractions – For the same reason as above.
Focus on Meeting Key Points! Prevent agenda creep – If you have an agenda, the meeting facilitator must ensure all participants adhere to it. If the agenda is set, ensure that discussions do not stray too far from the topics.
Send Meeting Minutes as Quickly as Possible – If the meeting is kept to 22 minutes, then the meeting content and resolutions should be sent out as soon as possible before the next meeting.

Narrowing Learning into Memory#

American educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom categorized educational (learning) objectives into three types: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. In the cognitive domain, there are six levels from low to high: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Knowledge: This refers to memory and recognition, the ability to recall important terms, facts, methods, standards, principles, and rules;
Comprehension: This means understanding the significance of important terms and concepts, being able to translate and explain them;
Application: This means being able to apply learned knowledge concepts, methods, steps, and principles to different contexts;
Analysis: This means breaking down certain information contained in knowledge into its components, elements, relationships, and organizational principles, and then reassembling them while clarifying the relationships among them;
Synthesis: This means rearranging or merging certain elements of knowledge information into an organized whole or presenting the relationships among them;
Evaluation: This means evaluating or comparing knowledge information according to certain criteria.

Using memory to measure learning outcomes can only measure one of the three major categories of learning objectives and one of the six subcategories, specifically the lowest level. True learning is much more complex and profound than mere memorization.

Not Considering the Breadth and Depth of Learning#

Breadth Issues

It is undeniable that learning through practical experience is far more effective than pure reading, which everyone knows, and it does not require psychologists to conduct special experiments to prove it. The problem is that people's time and energy are limited; it is impossible to learn everything through practical experience, and we may not be able to afford the costs of learning from failures. Experience is the best teacher, but it is also the harshest teacher, often requiring you to pay a painful price before it teaches you anything.

People can learn through three avenues:

Learning through experience,
Learning through observation,
Learning through abstract symbols (such as reading).

The things learned through experience leave the deepest impressions and are the hardest to forget, but they are also the least efficient and come at the highest cost. In a lifetime of only a few decades, how many things can one personally experience, and how much can one afford to lose? Learning through reading is not as profound as practical experience, but it is the most efficient; a book costing two or three hundred dollars can convey a master's lifetime of experience and wisdom. As for the effectiveness and efficiency of observational learning, it falls between the two.

Depth Issues

Experiential learning and learning through practical operations face the same problem: high costs (including time and money). You cannot participate in experiential education activities every day, but you can read every day. Experiential education usually requires an afternoon or even two days and nights to fully experience, and what you gain are only simple concepts, such as cash flow is important, trust is important, empathy is important, and teamwork is important, etc. These simple concepts are things we already know. The key is whether they can lead to change. Experiential education or attending speeches can provide sudden insights, but they cannot produce lasting change. In education and psychology, behavioral change or the emergence of creativity cannot be achieved by listening to a speech once or having a sudden flash of inspiration; it requires long-term continuous learning, solid foundational knowledge accumulation, and the right catalysts (motivation) to produce results.

For the same simple learning material (content), the learning effect of experiential education is indeed better than pure reading, but in the long run, the breadth and depth of what can be learned through reading far exceed what experiential education can provide. Spending the same amount of time, the knowledge gained from reading and attending classes is definitely deeper and broader than that from experiential education. In fact, various learning methods have their necessity and applicability. According to Bloom's three major learning objectives, in the "psychomotor" domain, practical operations yield the best results (with a few exceptions, such as pilot training, which requires simulation learning); in the "cognitive" and "affective" domains, reading and community learning (modeling and environmental education) yield the best results.

Not Considering the Most Important Learning Motivation#

If we can learn anything from the widely circulated learning pyramid on the internet, it is the concept of active learning versus passive learning. "Active learning" refers to learners actively and positively acquiring learning materials, such as participating in discussions; while "passive learning" refers to learners passively receiving information and knowledge, such as watching television. Of course, it is undeniable that active learning is more effective than passive learning.

The problem is that the distinction between active and passive learning does not limit specific learning methods. For example, a student conducting an experiment is not necessarily engaging in active learning, while listening to a teacher's lecture is not necessarily passive learning. If one is inattentive and merely following the steps in a book or the teacher's instructions during practical operations, they are still engaging in passive learning. Conversely, if one is fully engaged during a lecture, continuously dialoguing with the speaker in their mind, and critically thinking about the content being presented, that is undoubtedly active learning. More importantly, what truly distinguishes active learning from passive learning is the learner's "learning motivation."

What Exactly Is the Learning Pyramid? Dale's Cone of Experience Theory!#

With the advancement of technology, more and more media are being applied in education. Dale's "Audiovisual Methods in Teaching," centered around the Cone of Experience, is a representative work of audiovisual teaching theory.

Early Visual Teaching Theory#

In 1928, Weber articulated the importance of visual teaching in his article "The Value of Images in Education": the visual sense plays a crucial role in the educational process, and merely using language can diminish students' interest; it can lead to verbalism; improvements in photographic technology have expanded the learning environment for learners; experimental education has proven that visual teaching aids make courses more vivid and intuitive, resulting in significant benefits during the learning process. The core aspects of early visual teaching theory include the following three points:

Visual media can provide concrete and effective learning experiences. The application of visual teaching aids aligns with the human cognitive development process, allowing learning to progress from vivid and intuitive to abstract thinking.
The classification of visual teaching aids should be based on the degree of concrete learning experiences they can provide. Weber classified typical visual teaching aids according to a continuum from concrete to abstract: real world → simulated reality → pictorial reality → diagrammatic symbols → verbal symbols.
The use of visual teaching materials should be organically integrated with the curriculum.

The basic content of early visual teaching theory remains valid today. Dale, the spokesperson for audiovisual teaching, developed a theoretical system centered around the Cone of Experience based on these fundamental concepts. The Cone of Experience is a theoretical model for classifying learning experiences, providing more practical value than all classification methods from the early audiovisual teaching movement. It can be summarized as follows:

Purposeful Direct Experience. Dale believes that the base of the cone represents direct experience, which involves direct contact with real objects. This is the most substantial and concrete experience, obtained through seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and doing real things.
Designed Experience. This is a "real adaptation," which can make it easier for people to understand reality. For example, creating models, which differ in size and complexity from the original, can sometimes yield better teaching outcomes than using real objects.
Participatory Drama. There are many things we cannot directly experience, such as events that have already passed. Some conceptual things also cannot be adapted into designed experiences. Participating in drama allows us to approximate reality as closely as possible. Participatory drama differs significantly from merely watching a performance. It enables people to engage in repeated experiences, making it closer to direct experience than merely watching.

The first three levels of experience all involve personal action. In these three methods, individuals cannot be bystanders but must be active participants.

Observational Demonstration. Watching others perform tasks allows students to learn how to do something, enabling them to do it themselves later.
Field Trips. These allow individuals to see real objects and various phenomena.
Exhibitions. This involves seeing without participating in actions.
Films and Television. Films and television abstract real events and transfer them to the screen. The things on the screen represent real objects but are not the objects themselves. By watching films and television, we do not gain direct experience but rather substitute experiences. Although films and television may cause us to lose directness, they also provide compensation. This is because films and television select typical materials, allowing us to focus on observing important aspects. Films and television are not limited by time and space, presenting past or distant events; they can also depict phenomena that change too quickly or too slowly at appropriate speeds. The difference between films and television and exhibitions is that films and television can condense time and space.
Radio, Recordings, Photos, and Slides. This level of experience is sometimes referred to as "one-sense" experience, as it emphasizes enhancing either visual or auditory experiences.
Visual Symbols. This mainly refers to charts, maps, etc. At this level of the cone, the real forms of objects can no longer be seen; only abstract representations remain. Charts and maps do not explain things using words but express them using what some call a new language of visual symbols.
Verbal Symbols. Verbal communication refers to the activities of using language for communication and thinking. It can be divided into oral language, written language (text), and internal language (silent language). This level is the top of the cone. Here, the original forms of any objects have been transformed into abstractions, with only the meaning unchanged; the words have no resemblance to the objects or concepts they represent. Verbal symbols can be concrete words or concepts, principles, formulas, etc., but the most important aspect is that these symbols are purely abstract.

In summary, the Cone of Experience categorizes learning experiences into three major categories:

Doing learning experiences, including purposeful direct experiences, designed experiences, and participatory drama experiences.
Observational learning experiences, including demonstrations, field trips, exhibitions, films, television, radio, recordings, and still images.
Symbolic learning experiences, including visual symbols and verbal symbols.

Key Points of Dale's "Cone of Experience" Theory#

The learning experiences at the base of the cone are the most concrete, becoming increasingly abstract as one moves upward. It classifies different teaching materials and methods based on the degree of concrete learning experiences they provide, serving as a theoretical guide for teachers to select appropriate media based on students' needs and abilities and the nature of the teaching tasks.
The classification basis of the cone → the degree of concreteness or abstraction is unrelated to the difficulty of learning. Various learning experiences are interconnected and permeate each other. Teaching should fully utilize various learning avenues, allowing learners' direct experiences to organically connect with indirect experiences.
Teaching should start from concrete experiences and gradually move toward abstraction, preventing verbalism—moving from concept to concept. Indirect experiences should be based on direct experiences as much as possible. At the same time, students should be guided toward abstract thinking when appropriate.
Everyone's experiences are limited by time and space. The audiovisual teaching media located in the middle of the cone can provide learners with what Dale refers to as substitute experiences, helping to overcome the limitations of time and space, resolving the contradictions between concrete and abstract experiences, and compensating for the deficiencies of various direct experiences.

Insights from Dale's "Cone of Experience"#

It points out ten levels of learning pathways from concrete to abstract. Although the current learning pathways are much more numerous than in the era of the Cone of Experience, the learning principles it presents still hold guiding significance today. The experiences at the base of the cone are direct and concrete, making them the easiest to understand and remember during learning. The experiences at the top of the cone are the most abstract, making it easier to acquire concepts and apply them.

It indicates general methods of learning. Learning should start from concrete experiences but should not stop at direct experiences; it should gradually transition to abstraction, rise to theory, develop thinking, and form concepts, which is a more effective learning method.

Substitute experiences are good helpers for scientific abstraction. The experiences located in the middle of the cone are substitute experiences, which lie between doing experiences and abstract experiences. They can break through the limitations of time and space, providing necessary, easily understandable, and memorable materials for students while also facilitating teachers' explanations, prompts, summaries, and conclusions, allowing for a transition from concrete images to abstract concepts and theories, forming patterns, making them effective learning tools.

Influence is actually the result of accumulated trust.

In the early stages, we might receive feedback like, "I really enjoy working with you," or "Working with you feels different from working with others." This feeling is similar to when I was in operations; everyone enjoyed interacting with me and was willing to participate in the activities I organized. I thought about it for a long time and couldn't fully understand "why me," but later realized the "secret" was quite simple: being sincere and treating users as friends (because I naturally did this, I didn't think it was anything special at the time). Now it seems that this is indeed the way to build lasting relationships.

People care more about meaning than products. The purpose of consumption is not to acquire something but to create some change in oneself. Many brands today are essentially symbols. For example, purchasing lululemon conveys the message that I am starting to get fit.
Customers establish identity through purchasing products. Traditional enterprises view users as sheep to be slaughtered. However, a truly user-centered perspective should help them become who they want to be. Lululemon offers many fitness classes to help purchasing users achieve their health goals.
Support communities rather than market segmentation. The internet has made community culture more prominent, where everyone loves to band together and believes they have a voice in certain areas. Therefore, one should support communities rather than adopt a condescending marketing approach (which will alienate the community). Once trust is established, the community will rally behind the product. This reminds me of how Xiami's community operations garnered a large number of MI fans for Xiaomi.
Abandon authority and embrace sincerity. This stems from a company's mission, which goes beyond merely existing for profit. Sincerity arises from meaningful relationships, open communication, and one's personality (not being overly agreeable) and boundaries.