elmo-653179_1280One of the teams I get to work with has adopted a meeting practice that has been around at least five years. A small Elmo doll sits up front with the meeting chair. Whenever the meeting discussion starts to run off track the chair picks up Elmo to indicate “Enough Let’s Move On.” Go on too long and he throws the doll at you.

As you can imagine, he doesn’t have to throw Elmo too often. It’s a fun way to keep meetings on topic in a spirit that respects the trust teams are working to build with each other.

So add Elmo to the dice, poker chips, balls, puzzles and LEGO bricks that Lean project teams are using to make the work better.

It almost sounds like play!