If you’ve gone to leads groups or Chamber events, you’ve probably noticed that you can’t learn very much about someone in 30 seconds. Also, a roomful of strangers trying to sell you stuff you don’t need isn’t usually the most conducive environment to building real business relationships. If you’re a classic introvert, you might even find this setup somewhat intimidating.

If you’ve been attending business networking groups for awhile, you may have heard of a “one-on-one.” The basic idea is that you meet for coffee with another business owner for 30 to 60 minutes and get to know each other’s businesses a little better. This has value to an extent. You can build relationships this way if you meet with the right people. One obvious drawback: you can’t meet with everybody one-on-one.

The “think tank” is a middle-of-the-road option. The basic idea: get 3 to 7 people together for 2 to 3 hours and brainstorm about how to help each other more proactively. I’ve done this now a few times, and I’ve learned some things about how to do them effectively.

1. Pick the right people.

2. Make sure it’s the right combination of people. Pair up people who are most likely to be glad they met.

3. Send out one-line e-mails introducing the participants to each other beforehand.

4. Summarize your findings and send them out to everyone in an e-mail after the fact.

As I develop this model, I will be sharing what I learn. I’ve already found that it’s an easy way to get introverts talking and start stimulating team thinking.

I’ve found yet another gem this week that I’ve used to pull myself out of the writer’s block mud several times already. When I need a fresh perspective on a subject I’m writing about, I often compare the subject to a dissimilar thing. I’ve been using this trick for awhile now, and this week, I discovered a new twist on the idea. Confession: this isn’t my idea. I stole it. Michael Michalko wrote the idea in his book, Thinkertoys.

For example, six months ago I was writing an article about brainstorming, and I asked myself, “What does brainstorming have in common with a blender?” (I scanned the room for objects to use for the exercise, and my eyes fell on a blender first.)

Here’s what I came up with at the time: a blender needs to be rinsed after every use, a blender combines different ingredients into a seemingly-homogenous end product, a blender’s blades dull over time, and a blender whips air bubbles into the thing it’s blending at high speeds, causing the volume of the blended substance to appear larger than it is. What does that have to do with brainstorming?

Brainstorming requires starting fresh each time you do it. If you start the brainstorming process with other things on your mind, that’s like using a blender with residue still in it; you’ll taste the last thing you blended in the thing you’re blending now. In similar fashion, brainstorming with yesterday’s ideas on your mind will produce a re-hashed version of the same ideas you came up with yesterday. Brainstorming involves combining different ideas. So on and so forth.

This week, I decided to expand on the idea with the book I’m writing. I decided to compare my marketing paradigm to the Pied Piper of Hamelin and see what new ideas I come up with that way. Note: the concept is already modeled after the Pied Piper; I made that decision weeks ago. But this time, I decided to re-read the original Pied Piper fable and see what it has in common with marketing.

Here’s what I got right off the bat: the Pied Piper was anonymous, but his skills made him instantly famous in a town who’d never heard of him. He solved an immediate, pressing problem that the townspeople needed to deal with (the rat infestation). He wasn’t a good deal closer, since he didn’t manage to collect payment for his services. He seduced people into following him.

The next time you get stuck, try cracking open a fairy tale and asking yourself what the main character would do in a situation like yours.