The Best And Worst Places To Create New Ideas

Nobody ever gets their best creative ideas in a grey windowless conference room, yet companies everywhere are having meetings right now in places that suck the energy and ideas out of those they are looking to inspire.
 
While you may not be able to immediately influence the location or style of your current offices, paying attention to where you host your regular team meetings or your quarterly strategic retreats will make the difference. Remember how you feel if you visit a restaurant with a fabulous view, inspiring décor, and uplifting music. Your mood changes and you relax. Leaders who pay attention to the location of their meetings get greater ideas from their teams and reduce the probability of the collective eye roll of frustration and attendees reaching for their phone for an alternative distraction.
 
Here are five of the best and worst places to generate new ideas:
 
Worst:

• Your regular windowless conference room
• An open plan office where work is continuous
• Your cramped office
• Your home office while trying one of the many failed video conferencing solutions that just don’t work

 Best:

• Anywhere that is a break from your normal work environment
• Luxury car show rooms (yes they rent them out for private events)
• Private dining rooms in restaurants with a view
• Meeting rooms in libraries, museums, and art galleries (Seattle Library and the Seattle Sculpture Park has some amazing spaces)
• Use Peer Space to hire out unusual venues from train carriages to theatres

Innovation happens when you are outside of your comfort zone. What can you try that is new for your next team gathering? 

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

When Did You Last Bring Your Whole Team Into The Same Room?

Last month an executive I was working with brought his whole global team together from around the world. For those of you who know me well or read my work know I am not a fan of monotonous offsites and that fluffy team building is a complete waste of time. So when I do work with a client to bring their leadership team and whole organization together, it becomes far more than just another meeting.

We didn’t quite realize at the time just how much this global team of 70 would find value in coming together to understand the business and create a greater belief in the future strategy of the business. Several told us they were considering other job opportunities but now they were back “all-in”. Those savings alone saved half a million dollars. Not counting the additional revenue generating ideas that were created that day. 

When did you last bring your team together face to face?

What about your people managers?

Don’t listen to me, here’s what a few people who were there had to say:

“I finally got to put faces to pictures to people I have worked with for the last five years, it will be very helpful . When I first joined the company I was excited, I wanted to take on the world. Over the years, not seeing people, not coming over here, or people coming to see me it started to get very lonely. I felt isolated, nobody knew what I did. This year was really difficult, a lot of companies were contacting me to work for them, I had my doubts, and having colleagues was really important to me. It feels like I just started here and it is my first day. So now I want to do great things again, this wasn’t how I felt coming here. I am going to reboot myself.

“We usually have updates and announcements, today we had to think, we could pitch our ideas and was thought-provoking. I feel motivated, now I am going to go back and implement some of the ideas for my team and me personally. I now know what my soundbites are so I can lead my team better.”

“Great to ideate and hear from the US and regions and joining us together which will help us create results as a leadership team.”Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

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How To Rapidly Recharge Your Energy When You Are Exhausted

Before every flight you will see the same scene: people franticly walking in circles looking desperately for the power outlets so they can charge their devices before the next leg of their travel. There are over one million external battery chargers available for sale on Amazon alone, yet we often pay more attention to the energy level of our devices than our own energy.
 
If you had a battery energy indicator, what percentage is your personal energy at right now? 100% fully charged or are you getting a Low Battery Warning on your own energy?
 
Of course everyone knows the logic of getting the sleep, exercise, and nutrition for optimum performance, but when life gets in your way, here are three ways to get rapidly get back on track.
 
1. Know how to operate in your Low Battery Mode.

• Your phone in low battery mode doesn’t try to do everything, and neither should you. This is one time when you can dial up your ruthlessness to unprecedented levels. Only focus on the absolutely time critical and impactful aspects of your work and life.
• Set a time limit for when you will emerge from your Low Battery Mode. Let people around you know that you are intentionally operating differently for a while.

2. Know your rapid rechargers

• When you are exhausted, you need a rapid recharge but your time is more precious than ever. This is when you get to be incredibly selfish. Know who the people are, who after speaking with them, boosts not crushes your energy. I was talking to a leader at an executive retreat I was leading in Portland this week. They had just started a new role and realized that it had been two months since they had last gone for a run as they had been so excited and absorbed with their new role. They decided they were going to prioritize running again as their rapid recharger, what is yours?

3. Ask your OPQ – One Powerful Question

• What do you have energy to commit to doing right now? Your OPQ is powerful because it doesn’t focus on what you should be doing or what you think you will do, but simply what you have the energy to commit to right now.

Don’t try and start everything from scratch. Rather than committing to a triathlon, a full on restrictive eating plan, AND eight hours sleep a night, just pick one thing.
 
Dedicated to growing your business,

Val