For many years, my company has had very clear lines of authority, position and title. Your title determined everything from the type of phone you had, to the size of your office, to the color of your walls. While the culture of the organization has changed since then, I believe this has instilled in many lower-level employees a fear of speaking in meetings that included higher-level executives. These executives want everyone in the meeting to feel comfortable expressing their opinions, but have difficulty achieving full participation. Therefore, my facilitation box focuses primarily on ways to improve participation, although many elements can also be used for other creative purposes. As Professor Schlake did on the first day of class, I will begin my meetings by handing out soft balls and isoflex stress toys to meeting attendees. In an organization like ours, this will immediately change the tone of the meeting and allow all participants to let their guard down. As we saw in the first lesson, people throw toys at each other and laugh at their nonsense. This...