Fun as a Business Development Strategy
Work doesn’t have to always be serious ;)
(This post was originally published in 2021. It seems highly relevant for this summer as well!)
I hope you’re having a fun summer! Fun doesn’t have to stop at the end of the season, though. One of the greatest opportunities for having fun at work is in solving problems as part of a team.
I know, we all avoid problems at one time or another. It’s boring – “not this issue again!”. It’s mind-boggling – “I can’t believe we’re still stuck on this!”. Or we simply don’t have faith that a solution exists or that we’re capable of finding a solution. Isn’t it odd that we lean towards the negative rather than “how can we creatively solve this problem”?
Fun as a business development strategy
I invite you to reflect on your summer and think about the fun times you’ve been having so far, or how you observe youngsters totally engrossed in the fun they’re having. Innovation skills begin developing at a young age, and there’s much to learn from watching the young ‘uns… What were some of the characteristics of those moments? They probably include things like going with the flow, not being self-conscious, not worrying about looking silly, being in the moment, etc.
If you and your team are able to capitalize on these characteristics when brainstorming, it can open the door to all kinds of ideas. Some ideas will be in the category of continuous improvement; others will make internal processes and systems more robust; one might even become a true innovative product, service, or marcomm strategy.
Here’s what happened when one company did this …
A large food retailer in the UK wanted to “shake up” its portfolio of stir fry foods. They created a wok made from bean bags. The team members acted out being a stir fry, with different people assigned different ingredients – beansprouts, oil, chicken, black beans, pea pods… you get the idea. Although they were uncomfortable at first, they soon became less self-conscious and hurled themselves into their wok (pun intended!). In the debrief afterwards, there were some enlightening observations that led to changing the cooking instructions and how the ingredients were prepared in the factory.
Even the most analytical folks can get into team brainstorming - the change in approach will probably be refreshing!
I believe that, with the right support anyone can learn creative ways to solve problems. If you’d like to see what tapping into creative potential could look like at your place of work, contact me at Ellia@ThePotentialCenter.com to arrange a call.