WhenIsGood.net compiled a random sample of over 100,000 responses to meeting invitations and found that event invitations are most likely to be accepted on Tuesday at 3pm.

Groups have been using WhenIsGood.net since 2007 to find meeting times that work for everyone. The meeting coordinator simply starts an event, suggests a range of times and dates, then circulates an invitation link via email. Participants indicate the best time for them, so the coordinator can make an informed scheduling decision.

In addition to confirming the optimal meeting time on Tuesdays, WhenIsGood.net anonymously sampled user data and found that the afternoon is generally freer than the morning (especially first thing in the morning).

Interestingly, they didn’t find much variation between days of the week. People are just as available on Wednesday as they are on Friday or Monday.

Funny thing is…we used to always reserve Tuesday at 3pm as our flexible meeting time, to meet about a specific subject if necessary. Of course, now we’re juggling the daily schedules of full-time students, hourly workers and distributed employees, and Tuesday at 3pm doesn’t quite cut it anymore.

What about you? Has your group found a meeting time that tends to work for everyone?

Here’s the full report from WhenIsGood.net.

So what exactly does Blip do? Well, Blip takes the Twitter model and lets you microblog, but with a twist. On Blip, you associate each bleep (?) with a song. This song can be nearly anything, they have access to a wide range of online materials, or you can even upload your own song.

My first question with services like these: How do they make money? Well, Blip actually has a business model. Direct from your homepage, you can click on a track that you particularly like and you are taken directly to where you can purchase it from Amazon, and Blip receives a portion of that. Seems like an excellent, symbiotic relationship.

Next question: Why in the world would I encourage my team to use this, and possibly decrease productivity? Well, one of the best things about microblogging is that it is designed to restrict the possible amount of time that you can spend on any one post. Of course, people can always take posting to the extreme, but you just have to be careful that doesn’t happen. My biggest justification is that the best teams I have worked in have always had close (ish) personal relationships. This allows them to develop the sense of intuition required to work seamlessly with other people. A service like this helps people interact in a way they may not have before, and can help bring relationships closer together.

In short, having a well functioning team is a function of the interpersonal relationships in the team, and whatever can be done to improve those should help the team performance. And Blip could help bring your team together in a novel and exciting way.

Start with The Big Picture. You should begin training by giving an overview of the company and its projects and later climb down to specifics. Even though your employee will not vividly recall all the general information you give them about the vast array of tools and procedures you use, it’s still important to expose them early on. It is the foundation of their learning, and you can revisit The Big Picture before going into each new tool or area of information to be learned. It takes a lot of sleep to assimilate vast amounts of information to the point where it can be usefully applied.

You’re a team. If you are pointing out a mistake your trainee made, it is often better to say something like “It looks like we forgot to…” or “We accidentally put this in wrong…” This lowers both stress and anxiety and lets you share responsibility for their learning. Share credit for tasks completed with your trainee, even if you did most of the work. They are doing a lot of work by learning. Using these methods, confrontations are minimized, more issues are openly resolved, and enthusiasm and morale are maintained.

It’s OK to make plenty of mistakes. You’re going to mess up, type in the wrong thing, be lost for an example, or explain things in such a way to incite laughter from your coworkers. Don’t worry about it. They would be doing the same thing. It’s more important to admit that you are wrong as soon as you realize it, and work towards finding the correct solution. That’s the essence of your work–problem solving. You’re an expert at making mistakes and finding solutions, not perfectly reciting facts and procedures you already know. Plus, making mistakes in front of new employees will create an atmosphere for them where it’s okay to make mistakes as a part of creative problem solving.

Explain the same things over again and again. You should expect to do this and not get frustrated too easily. Be very patient. Make sure your employee knows it is OK to ask for an explanation of anything you are doing, even twice, thrice, or the umpteenth time. Having them take notes is good, but you can’t expect every piece of information to make it into the notebook, or be easily found and applied to the current situation.

Take a break. Have someone else take over training for a day or two so you can catch up on other pressing issues and recuperate. In part II of this article, we’ll explore some topics to help you along after those first few critical days of training. You will learn about increasing efficiency, preventing burnout, and transitioning your trainee into being a productive employee.

In school or work or sports, decisions are often made in a group setting and we often assume that groups are the best way to produce valuable, creative ideas.

The truth is: groups often hinder creativity.

This seems a bit counter-intuitive. Shouldn’t it be helpful to bounce our ideas off of other people? Doesn’t it encourage the creative process to involve a variety of perspectives? Yes. Groups have the potential to encourage the creative process. Unfortunately, unmanaged groups usual default into a routine that does more harm than good.

For example, let’s say that Sam is in a group trying to decide what color to make their new website. He suggests doing an all-white background. Mark is also in the group and vocalizes his initial reaction: “No, not white. It’s too boring and plain.” Susan also chimes in with, “I like white sometimes, but everyone seems to be using white…”

Mark and Susan have valid concerns, but their responses instantly place limits on the discussion. This may lead to a quick decision, but not the most creative one. Other elements of group dynamics can place further limits on innovation: competition, groupthink, personal biases, hogging the spotlight, aversion to “time wasting”, diffusion of responsibility and more. Most of these things happen naturally when you get a bunch of people together to decide something. And all of them limit the potential innovation of your team.

What to do? With a little intentional effort you can optimize your group or team’s creativity. Here are some things we’ve learned to work on:

• Start with the positives. When a new idea is mentioned, the first responses should all focus on enhancing that idea. Save the concerns for later.
• Enforce a time limit. Groups are about the exchange of ideas, not a lengthly monologue. Allow people to express themselves, but make sure everyone has a chance to chime in. Also, meetings become less effective when they get too long. Try to have several shorter meetings rather than one epic meeting.
• Play devils advocate. People who work together for a long time start thinking alike. Introduce some fresh perspective by thinking like someone else.
• Give group members responsibility. Make sure everyone is invested in the group’s goals by giving them something to do. And don’t just assign busy-work. Make it crucial to the groups functioning like leading discussion, taking notes, or being the time keeper.
• Let people do group work on their own time. You don’t have to resolve every little thing in a meeting. Suggest ideas that people can mull over individually in their spare time. Set up a group forum or project manager where team members can share their input whenever inspiration strikes.
• Think opposites. If you’re fresh out of good ideas, try brainstorming the worst ideas you can think of. Make them really bad. Then, do the opposite. Or sometimes just the process of thinking like this can spark some new ideas.

There’s a lot more you can do, but the important thing is to put some thought into the dynamics of your team meetings. Identify the creative limits you’re placing on one another and get rid of them!