Sometimes people blanche when we tell them we intend to save the world through meetings. We don’t blame them – very few of the calendar items people experience in life have the collective creative heft of the minds the Labs convenes, not to mention the multiplier effect of thinking on behalf of others.

Still, we think that with a few changes, many of the meetings that make up our everyday agendas could be radically better. In a recent interview with Rahim Kanani of Forbes, Labs Dean Jeff Leitner laid out five ideas for making collaboration less conventional:

1. Flatten the hierarchy: “It isn’t enough for the leader to say he or she is open to new ideas; he or she must get the hell out of the way.”

2. Change the milieu: “…you can’t put people in familiar environments, lead them through familiar activities and expect new or novel results. Ultimately, we’re creatures of habit.”

3. Don’t brainstorm: “…an idea we create collectively – you say something, I add something, you challenge, I improve, etc. – is infinitely more valuable than an idea that one of us generates alone, even if the collective idea isn’t quite right. Brainstorming, as it’s generally proselytized, is a solitary activity practiced together. You don’t need collaborators for that.”

4. Ask a straightforward question: “That’s a lot harder than it sounds, both because it’s intellectually challenging and because too many folks believe their value lies in the apparent complexity of the problems they tackle.”

5. Design for collisions: “Remember, the value of collaboration is that you plus me is better than you or me. So it is essential that the leader or organizer design a process that forces participants’ ideas to bump into each other, bounce off of each other, bruise and affect each other.”

Check out the full interview to learn more about the genesis of the Labs and where we’re headed in 2012.