Working with the same people on routine tasks in the same
setting constitutes 90 percent of most people's jobs. This
creates a certain comfortable consistency. For most of us, going to
the office in the morning means knowing where we're supposed to
be and what we'll be working on.
That sense of comfort that's found in routine even applies
to meetings. Most business owners always hold their staff meetings
in the same room, and many employees even tend to gravitate toward
the same chairs every time. This is our human nature at work,
staking out our boundaries and finding our place in the scheme of
things. At heart, we're all creatures of habit.
Familiarity, however, can breed ineptitude when work teams are
seeking to come up with something new, says Frank McAndrew, a
professor of social psychology at Knox College in Galesburg,
Illinois. The office setting, he says, reinforces the habitual ways
in which we deal with our co-workers and problems. Most people tend
to rely on old solutions, simply because it's easier. "The
more you're in the same surroundings, the more you'll do
this," McAndrew says. "People like familiarity because
they don't have to process new information. But really,
we're primed to be our best when we're put in new
places."
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Giving employees a change of scenery-even something as simple as
walking around the block-can help trigger new ideas, new enthusiasm
and a boost in morale that will have at least short-term benefits
for your organization. Studies have shown that today's
employees place a high value on their ability to strategize in a
job and want recognition for their ideas. In a 1999 Walker
Information survey, employees listed "opportunities to
contribute" as a major factor in building job satisfaction,
but less than half those surveyed (47 percent) felt the companies
they worked for were encouraging them to experiment with new ways
of doing things.
Crawford says she tries to form a connection so her staff can
see a link between the purpose of her business and everyday life in
the office, and her employees have grown accustomed to her efforts
to break out of the stale routine of traditional office meetings.
"I'm consciously trying to create a culture where it's
desirable to take things outside," she says. "I encourage
my employees to take a walk to chat and share ideas."
Staff members often take half-hour breaks to visit a nearby toy
store, where they can check out the assortment of toys while
talking business strategy. Crawford and her employees also frequent
the local food market to do the same thing. Crawford is sold on the
idea that these kinds of activities increase the creativity of her
and her employees. "Spending a small amount of time to change
the environment creates a major payoff. It helps you take ideas to
another level," she says. "It's a freebie I can give
my employees. I can create something that doesn't cost
anything, and it's important for employee retention, especially
here in the Silicon Valley."
Vicki Whiting, an assistant professor at the Gore School of
Business Management at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, says
that getting away from the typical roundtable office meeting-for a
cup of coffee, a walk or another refreshing activity-can remove
many of the hierarchical barriers that surface in formal meetings.
"If you have the leader leaning in one direction on an idea,
subordinates will tend to follow if things are formal,"
Whiting says. "Offsite meetings make things more equal between
employees and manager."
Offering employees a change of surroundings is by no means a new
idea; many companies send their teams out to go white-water rafting
or to sit by the fire at a scenic lodge to strategize. The goal is
to bring out the best in your staff and create an atmosphere that
encourages teamwork. The problem is that many companies can only
provide such activities periodically because they require such a
large investment of time and money-which leaves a lot of time
between retreats for owners to slip back into the same
routines.
"Doing one company event a year isn't enough,"
says Beverly Murray, the 36-year-old president of R&M Group, a
Raleigh, North Carolina, design and marketing firm that's been
in business for eight years. "There needs to be a consistent,
ongoing effort that says management is encouraging employees to
think differently."
At R&M Group, for example, "thinking differently"
means Murray strategizes with her eight employees during games of
Laser Tag, while having picnics or in the midst of Play-Doh
sessions. Murray is sold on the idea that these activities help
demonstrate to her employees that it's OK to take the risk of
offering new suggestions, even ones that might not work. "I
want it to be OK for people to have a bad idea, because they often
lead to the ones that do work," she says. "By getting out
of the office and doing these things, I'm quietly making a
statement that it's OK to think outside the box."
R&M Group budgets a monthly get-together outside the office;
each time, a different employee is in charge of picking the
location for the meeting location, coming up with the discussion
topics and keeping things moving when it gets quiet. Whiting sees
these opportunities as a good way to open things up. "You let
employees take the ball and run," she says. "This implies
trust, which sends positive signals to employees."
When it came time to revise the marketing strategy at Crawford
& Associates, Crawford held the staff meeting at her home.
Employees brainstormed and wrote various ideas on a giant piece of
butcher paper. "There was a great stream of consciousness in
that meeting that we could never have had at the office,"
Crawford says. "Being in a different place allowed us to get
rid of distractions and pay attention."
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