From the course: Unlock Your Team's Creativity

Shake up your setting

From the course: Unlock Your Team's Creativity

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Shake up your setting

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- It happens to the best of us. We end up meeting in the same place with the same people about the same topics. Sure it's efficient, but a predictable routine is the enemy of innovative thinking. In fact, according to a recent Fast Company article routines limit our brain's ability to build skills and knowledge. To help people get out of the same old work routine we use a technique called Shake Up Your Setting. It offers four simple changes to jump-start fresh thinking. The first relates to location as in change where you hold your next meeting. Use a different conference room. Go to a vendor site. Meet outside, or go to a coffee shop, and if the weather cooperates do a walking meeting. As a group you can take electric scooters from the office to the new meeting spot. Number two, change the usual props. Remove all the chairs from the conference room and hold a standing meeting, or use Post-its and markers instead of a whiteboard or a laptop. Even serve different snacks. Queue up music to play at the beginning and end of the meeting to keep the energy up. Number three, change the usual agenda. Start things off with an icebreaker even if everyone knows each other. End the meeting early or book an escape room experience for your team. Just solve a puzzle or brain-teaser as a group to encourage collaboration. The point is to include some level of surprise to keep people engaged. And speaking of people the last tip is change up the usual suspects. Invite a surprise guest to the meeting. It can be an expert, a customer, or a client, even an employee from a different business unit. Someone who can contribute knowledge or experience to the meeting. Or hold a discussion with guest panelists who can shed insight on your meeting topic or a relevant business challenge. By shaking up our setting our minds retrieve information stored in different parts of the brain which increases the chances of memory retention and often results in new, and original thinking.

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