"Good bosses are especially adept at protecting their people’s time - for example, by eliminating needless meetings. Take a cue from Will Wright, designer of computer games such as The Sims: rather than automatically scheduling meetings, ask yourself if they are really needed. Wright employed a clever trick. Every time someone called a meeting, he charged that person a dollar. Although he collected a lot of dollars, this requirement made people "think twice, even though it was only a dollar." He also used an employee-centered method to keep meetings short—inviting the creative but impatient artist Ocean Quigley, "the canary in the coal mine." When Quigley raised his hand to be excused, “we knew that the meeting had hit diminishing returns."
Via this posting by Mitch Ditkoff, I came across this 10½ minute video with John Cleese. Listening to Mr. Cleese, I learned, for example, that to think out creative ideas, it is important to create conditions where/when you avoid interruptions for a period of time.
