As Insight Labs Dean Jeff Leitner likes to remind participants in our strategic sessions for the common good, we’re not here to brainstorm. We’re not here to carve out political positions or impress the next client or donor. We’re here to find solutions, and we’ll do whatever it takes to get there in three hours. By the time you’ve been in one of our rooms for a few minutes, you know the law: 20-odd minds enter, one big idea leaves.

That formulation may be the reason why Labs Co-Founder Howell Malham called our meetings a “Thunderdome of the mind” in a recent article in Association and Non-profit Bisnow, a publication that regularly reaches leaders in the industry. As Malham explains, the Labs don’t want conventional thinking from the corporate leaders invited to our events. We don’t want their money either – we want the best new idea their collective thinking can muster.

In return, we offer more than good karma – though many of the non-profits we’ve worked with have used the ideas generated by Labs to do significant good in the world. But as the article makes clear, bright folks from the for-profit world love our sessions because offering their full intellectual capacities on behalf of others reminds them just how capable they are. Several claim that their Labs experience caused them to view their work and relationships in entirely new ways, and they certainly feel motivated to never run a boring meeting again.

Is it the case that, as Bisnow puts it, “Top Execs + 3 Hours = Save the World?” We’re still figuring that out – but it certainly can’t hurt to transform those execs in the attempt.