Business meetings, OPERA, Innotiimi consultancy

Do you want to make meetings work faster and better - or work at all? Then go to the OPERA. That's the acronym which Kari Helin of Finnish consultancy Innotiimi applies.

• O - Start with Own suggestions: everybody gets 5 minutes to write down their ideas.

• P - Another 5 to 10 minutes goes on Pair suggestions: each twosome discusses, say, the four best proposals (only one their own).

• E - In the Explanation stage (another 10 mainutes), the best ideas are shared with the whole group - 'no criticism', says Helin firmly.

• R - Then comes 10 minutes of Ranking the proposals.

• A - Finally 5 minutes of grouping like ideas by Arranging. Total time elapsed, 45 minutes at most.