Good and bad examples of how to engage participants (Source)

I'm sort of a student of this uhh, actually, I've been a student for years of yoga and meditation and there's this new craze — not craze —but there's new thing out called "Mindfulness." You must've seen it. Cover of TIME, all kinds of stuff. And they're using mindfulness at IBM and government and they're beginning to see the power of people focusing together — actually is more usually an individual kind of thing I sort've call this "Collective Mindfulness." I can, you know — the idea and part of it is is this moment when everybody in the room is writing down their ideas and it's quiet. So you know, it's not like I'm going to get people to meditate in a public meeting. You know? Of course not. But, there's something about that collective focus idea that we're all going to do this now, which has a helpful effect on the meeting. But, on a more just practical, measurable level, it means that the shy people are in the game. The people who normally don't talk are maybe writing down their ideas. So, when you go around the table, You know, it's your turn. And maybe they'll say, oh I, ya know... Maybe they're really kinda shy, and they say "No, thank you." You know what it allows me to do instead of that facilitative move where I'll say, "Well, Bob, you didn't say anything. Did you have something to say?" Which really puts people on the spot, right? Instead, you can say, "Well, Bob, you you wrote down some things there would you like to tell us what you wrote on that item?" You see what that does? It's a completely different dynamic.