Strategy Think Time — monthly “Thought” meetings have helped propel Denver-based Thought Ensemble, a technology strategy consultancy, to more than double its size last year, and to double again this year with $6 million in revenue and 24 employees ($250k/employee — impressive). Notes Jim Smelley, co-founder and CEO:

‘Thought’ was initially an agenda item for a broader company meeting. “We encouraged team members to bring tough client challenges to our ensemble for discussion, however, we found that while the intent was good (and we had sporadically good results), we ended up rushing through the thought topic – and we were not very thoughtful,” explains Jim.

Two-Hour Monthly (Single) Strategy Discussion — Jim continues, “We have since re-structured the Thought meeting to be a dedicated time that takes place monthly. We focus on a single topic each month and send pre-read materials and questions before each meeting. The questions and responses are used to drive a two hour discussion on a single topic. During the meeting team members sign up to write related blog posts which are then posted as thought leadership on our company blog.

Strategy “Cerebrations” — Each month, we also award “Cerebrations” for the best blogs or whitepapers from the month. (We know it’s a cheesy title, but hey, we’re consultants. Isn’t that requited?)” Concludes Jim, “our last Thought Meeting focused on technology innovation. We conducted a lively conversation and debate and then set out to produce Thought pieces. It’s working. Our small company wrote dozens of articles read by thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of people.”