Giving gravity its due

Table Board in the conference room

The picture shows a huge white board placed on a table.

Typically white boards are wall mounted. One person scribbling or doodling and sort-of 'teachering' the people gazing at the board. Now that's more like a mass-media phenomenon. Advertisement bombarded through television and watched haplessly by folks gathered around.

I've tried making white board activities slightly more engaging, slightly more involving by placing it right on the table around which people sit. That way there's very little chance that they are staring at a void. They can't. Besides, working like this creates more proximity (actual physical proximity) between the content/matter and the people sitting around the table. And I've felt that this proximity rubs off positively. It's like everybody sharing the board-space equally; everybody's got a stake.

Lastly, you must've noticed this if you've ever scribbled for a while on a wall-mounted white board, standing. Legs tire. And so does the writing-hand. I've arranged it in a naturally convenient manner; you don't have to fight gravity to raise your writing hand. You don't have to stand and people don't have to stare keeping the heads held high and erect. They can slouch. They can keep the heads down. Work still happens. They are still receiving. They are paying attention.

Try it if you are a meeting-holic team.