flappers

With these bladders
they now and then flapped the mouths and ears
of those who stood near them.
Voyage to Laputa

The Laputians use flappers to prevent them from being too occupied. Creative techniques in fact are used for this very purpose. Moving away from the particular situation one is focussed on is not easy. The flapper is the facilitator of the process, it is the person who guides the process and whenever criticism is expressed on any of the wild ideas he 'flaps' to bring back the particular person to the purpose of the meeting: idea generation. In Laputa they tended to disagree all the time 'unless they happen to be of the right opinion, which is seldom their case' but at least they had agreed on the use of flappers and when Gulliver protested that he did not need to be hit, he fell in their esteem. None of us is perfect and it is just arrogant to presume that I will always be aware of what is to be done. Inventive search is a chaotic process and needs clear rules to have results. New ideas should be treated with respect (from Latin respicere: look at, without judging) and turbarro (turbo arrogant) is unlikely to be of any use.
When cooperating in inventive search and idea generation it is wise to create your own flappers.