I have recently been using one of those clear "gongs" of oriental
meditation origin which has a timer which rings the gong at regular
intervals.
I set this up by a bit of a story which positions the sound not as
an end to something but as a "calling to awareness". The groundrule
is that speaking stops at silence ensues for about 20 sconds. This
introduces silence and reflection into meetings where that is considered
appropriate without making a specific call for a specific purpose.
It tends to increase silence and listening generally.
Michael McMaster : Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk
book cafe site : http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe
Intelligence is the underlying organisational principle
of the universe. Heraclitus
--Michael McMaster <Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>