Meahana Blog

Forcing employees back to the office won’t magically fix collaboration; it will only expose the deep dysfunction of meetings that were already broken long before Zoom. Instead of dragging people back into the same outdated rituals, companies have a rare opportunity to reinvent meeting culture, ensuring discussions lead to real decisions, inclusivity replaces dominance, and time spent together actually moves work forward.

Most meetings fail not because they happen too often, but because they rely on outdated methods rather than intentional design. By shifting the focus from agenda-setting to structured decision-making frameworks—like Scenario Planning, Impact vs. Effort Mapping, and Solution Mapping—organizations can turn meetings from passive time sinks into high-impact working sessions that drive real progress.

Most meetings today are unproductive, unclear, and poorly designed. Smart meetings, powered by AI-driven tools like Meahana, connect objectives to facilitation methodologies, ensuring alignment, engagement, and actionable outcomes. Instead of fewer meetings, organizations need smarter ones—ones that go beyond simple note-taking and truly drive decisions forward. Discover how AI and agentic models are transforming meetings into strategic, high-impact sessions.

AI notetakers address the hassle of meeting documentation but fail to tackle deeper issues like disengagement, inefficiency, and poor decision-making that plague modern meetings. To truly transform meetings, we need smarter technology that guide discussions, ensure inclusive participation, and drive actionable outcomes.

Misalignment might not show up on your project plan, but it’s the silent killer of strategic initiatives—and it’s costing organizations a staggering $2 trillion annually.

Understanding the difference between Knowledge Transfer and Knowledge Curation is the key to leading productive meetings.

Discover the evolution of focus groups from WWII to modern insights, their strengths in uncovering human behavior, and how innovative approaches can address challenges like groupthink and bias to unlock deeper, actionable results.

Explore how leaders can overcome common meeting challenges—like data overload and ineffective tools—to drive intentional, collaborative decision-making with clarity and purpose.

Learn how to rejuvenate panel discussions. Discover effective strategies for selecting speakers, facilitating engaging conversations, and captivating your audience to ensure your panels are impactful and memorable.

Stop wasting time in boring meetings. Learn simple tricks to make your team talks actually work, boost teamwork, and get things done faster.

Takeaways that are auto-generated, and editable. A visual flow capturing all of the topics, inputs, and decisions, laid out in the order they were discussed

Whiteboard Alternative. Digital Collaboration. User Experience. Audience Engagement. A Better Way to Collaborate.

Moving beyond the Business Model Canvas, SWOT, Jobs to be Done and other worksheet driven canvas models

Top 10 reasons why change management initiatives fail.

The Meeting Challenge. Hybrid Meetings. Technology Gaps. Meeting Design and Facilitation.

Reflections on the evolving role of human intelligence (HI) in an era dominated by artificial intelligence (AI) and technology.

How technology can streamline lengthy, directionless meetings into productive sessions.

Six Compelling Reasons We Create

Discover the three types of courage every Business Artist needs: the empathy to understand clients, the creativity to innovate, and the courage to experiment. Embrace the challenges of merging art and business to push boundaries and achieve success.

Maximizing effectiveness as a Business Artist hinges on prioritizing health and wellness. Essential elements like adequate sleep, proper nutrition, and regular exercise significantly impact decision-making, creativity, and leadership abilities. Embracing a holistic approach, including mind-body wellness, is key to thriving in today's demanding creative and business environments

How do customers and employees feel about the value of creativity? And what role does conformity play? Conformity is a key component of a creative culture. You need creative types (aka Business Artists) on your team, but you need other cognitive types—namely, conformists.

For the Business Artist: The art lies in real-world improvisational skills, while the science involves understanding team roles and constraints. Successful sales demand mutual trust and collaboration, with each team member playing a pivotal role, aligning closely with customer needs.

Discover the 'Business Artist' perspective on collaboration, inspired by HBO's 'Spielberg' documentary. Learn how legends like Spielberg, Lucas, and Coppola mastered the art of friendly competition and mutual success. This insightful piece explores the concept of 'co-opetition' among Business Artists, revealing strategies used by SAP, Slack, and others for thriving in a competitive landscape.

Explore Three Bold Visions for Business Artists that sits at a Unique Intersection of Technology, Humanity, and Creativity

Discover how Business Artists redefine markets and stand out in your niche by challenging the status quo in business. Understand the significance of timing, innovation, and unique value propositions with our in-depth exploration of the three critical questions every business leader must ask: Why Change, Why Now, and Why You?

The ancient Greeks had two different words for the concept of time: chronos and kairos. You probably recognize the word chronos as the root for the English words “chronological” and “chronicle.” It refers to measured, ticking, quantitative time.

In an increasingly divided world, Business Artists champion generosity, collaboration, and understanding. They recognize that to truly make a difference, one must rise beyond innate instincts and think of others. Trans-perspectivism, a practice of viewing truth through varied lenses, promotes empathy and reduces conflict. Generosity is more than grand gestures; it's also about the subtle acts of service we offer daily. For Business Artists, serving others isn't just an art; it's a pathway to meaningful impact. Dive into the transformative power of shifting perspectives and the essence of true service.

The two most critical skills for a salesperson, or any Business Artist for that matter, are 1) Discovery, and 2) Storytelling. These are also the two hardest skills to learn. Why? Because they require you to clearly embrace the way of the Business Artist. 

Josh Baskins (played by Tom Hanks) in BIG, demonstrates the principles of facilitative leadership through a very simple question..."I don't get it?"

We all know that business has to run on data. Charts, reports, graphs, spreadsheets, and databases are critical for almost every business today. But what really grabs people’s attention? Stories.

Business Artists, who, like traditional artists, aim to create change but within the business context. These individuals deeply care about their customers and challenge the status quo to redefine what is possible. They ask questions, highlight dissatisfaction, and aim to bring innovation.

While we separate knowledge into different silos, the truth is everything is interconnected. Finding overlaps between disciplines allows for deeper thinking and insight.

Obstacles to creative flow often come from within, like overthinking rather than letting go

When someone is fueled by creative passion, as most Business Artists are, their minds are non-stop machines fueled by intense curiosity. There is no pause button and no way to power it down.

High-profile leaders showcase facilitative leadership's power to unlock collective potential and empower organizations to thrive.

When you zoom out and look at other professions that we don’t usually associate with creative thinking, you’ll see that they’re all Business Artists performing their art in unique ways.

We humans like to think of ourselves as logical, rational creatures. But the reality is that facts will never move the human heart like storytelling can.

Apple is "stuck in an endless cycle of imitating its own past success" and has become the "world's biggest cover band." Even innovative companies fall prey to simply "playing the hits" instead of pushing boundaries.

Most of us consume more than we create. When that happens, we operate from a place of judgment of other people’s creations and we limit ourselves by starving our artistic sensibilities.

Innovation can be fun and daunting at the same time. We see big changes ahead and wonder if we have the courage and ingenuity to adapt. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all that we have to do–and who we have to become–to get there safely.

Titling the department "Human Resources" strips humanity and autonomy from workers, reducing them to inputs and assets rather than souls.

Facilitative leadership empowers teams, fosters collective potential, and guides through influence rather than top-down control.

While technology has enabled immense progress, the dehumanizing focus on efficiency has reached an inflection point requiring a re-infusion of human creativity, which companies like Meahana aim to unlock through intuitive collaboration platforms

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of “connecting the dots.” I believe everything is related to everything else. No culture, idea, historical event, or current event exists in isolation. All of history, and all of humanity, is connected in an infinitely complicated web of people, places, things, events, and ideas.

One of the biggest themes of my upcoming book, The Business Artist, is that we all face a huge danger in our creative work: imitating others.