{"id":1689,"date":"2014-01-09T03:47:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T08:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terrencemetz.com\/?p=1689"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:55:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:55:04","slug":"tactile-stimulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/tactile-stimulation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Positive Psychology of Tactile Stimulation: Chenille Stems Make Everything Seem Easier"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>If you seek innovation and breakthroughs during your group meetings or workshops, do not clone yourself.<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Constantly strive to blend and mix various ingredients that stimulate participants, such as tactile stimulation. Prepare to keep all of your participants stimulated. We call it the \u201cZen\u201d of the experience\u2014that is appealing to all the senses to stimulate and maintain vibrancy, including chenille stems.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1690\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/stimulate-the-senses.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1690\" class=\" wp-image-1690 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/stimulate-the-senses-300x282.png\" alt=\"The Positive Psychology of Chenille Stems: How to Make Everything Seem Easier\" width=\"300\" height=\"282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/stimulate-the-senses-300x282.png 300w, https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/stimulate-the-senses.png 610w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1690\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Stimulate the Senses<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Tactile Stimulations Adds to the Zen of the Experience<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">As you know, moods and judgments can be influenced by unrelated experiences of sight and sound. For example, we typically feel happier on sunny days and perhaps more relaxed when listening to certain types of music. Research shows that heat and humidity provoke more fighting, violence, and even riots.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Visual Stimulation<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">You are encouraged to use multiple colors to break up the monotony of a single color hue. You are encouraged to use icons and illustrations to break up the monotony of recording notes purely in the narrative format. Likewise, use matrices, tables, and templates to stimulate your participants.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Music Helps a Lot<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Our popular break timers blend a musical background that could best be described as eclectic\u2014everything, from Frank to Frank as in <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Frank Sinatra\" href=\"http:\/\/sinatra.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage noopener noreferrer\">Frank Sinatra<\/a> to <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Frank Zappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zappa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage noopener noreferrer\">Frank Zappa<\/a>.\u00a0 We even suggest the use of Purell\u00ae, citrus fruit, and fresh air to alert participants who may be dozing off. Likewise, we encourage the use of 30-30, or 30-second stand-up and stretch breaks every 30 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Tactile Stimulation Works<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In a similar fashion, we have used chenille stems (aka pipe cleaners) and foam stickers for nearly twenty years now.\u00a0 While not all participants use them, research by Joshua Ackerman, Christopher Nocera, and John Bargh shows that the weight, texture, and hardness of the things we touch are unconsciously factored into decisions that have nothing to do with what is being touched. Tactile stimulation works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Most people associate smoothness and roughness with ease and difficulty. Note the expressions \u201csmooth sailing\u201d and \u201crough seas ahead.\u201d\u00a0 According to the researchers, people who completed a puzzle with pieces covered in sandpaper described their interaction as more difficult and awkward than those with smooth puzzles. Chenille stems offer both silky smoothness and flexibility, characteristics we seek from our participants and meetings. Let the chenille stems make everything seem better, they work, and research confirms why.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>______<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Don\u2019t ruin your career by hosting <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/bad-meetings\/\">bad meetings<\/a>. Sign up for a <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/public-facilitation-training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">workshop<\/a> or send this to someone who should. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260106090117\/https:\/\/mgrush.com\/\">MGR<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">USH<\/span><\/a><\/em> workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities every day during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you seek innovation and breakthroughs during your group meetings or workshops, do not clone yourself. Constantly strive to blend and mix various ingredients that stimulate participants, such as tactile stimulation. Prepare to keep all of your participants stimulated. We call it the \u201cZen\u201d of the experience\u2014that is appealing to all the senses to stimulate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55884429],"tags":[453190887,453192208,453190630,453190886,453192207],"class_list":["post-1689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meeting-support","tag-breakthrough","tag-chenille-stems","tag-innovation","tag-stimulate-the-senses","tag-tactile-stimulation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tactile Stimulation -- Chenille Stems Make Everything Seem 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However, he also observed meetings that worked. What set them apart? A well-prepared leader who structured the session to ensure participants contributed meaningfully and achieved clear outcomes. Throughout his career, Metz, who earned an MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern University) experienced and also trained in various facilitation techniques. In 2004, he purchased MG RUSH where he shifted his focus toward improving established meeting designs and building a curriculum that would teach others how to lead, facilitate, and structure meetings that drive results. His expertise in training world-class facilitators led to the 2020 publication of Meetings That Get Results: A Guide to Building Better Meetings, a comprehensive resource on effectively building consensus. Grounded in the principle that \u201cnobody is smarter than everybody,\u201d the book details the why, what, and how of building consensus when making decisions, planning, and solving problems. Along with a Participant\u2019s Guide and supplemental workshops, it supports learning from foundational awareness to professional certification. Metz\u2019s first book, Change or Die: A Business Process Improvement Manual, tackled the challenges of process optimization. His upcoming book, Catalyst: Facilitating Innovation, focuses on meetings and workshops that don\u2019t simply end when time runs out but conclude with actionable next steps and clear assignments\u2014ensuring progress beyond discussions and ideas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/MGrush.com","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FacilitationTraining\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/terrencemetz\/","@teammetz","https:\/\/x.com\/TerrenceMetz","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j4x3-Qo9Ez4"],"birthDate":"1955-09-23","gender":"male","jobTitle":"Managing Director","worksFor":"MG Rush Facilitation","url":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/author\/teammetz7\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/stimulate-the-senses.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}