Earlier this week was Swap Ideas Day and it got the team thinking about the importance of just that and the shift in the work place.
Not long ago, companies ran on a 9-5 with clocked breaks, little room for anything personal or enjoyable. Yes – I too am picturing a scene from a 50’s film where a man in a trench coat and suit sits at his desk all day, smoking and typing and makes it home after his kids have already finished dinner because it was “such a long day."
Fast forward to 2017 where modern workplaces allow for flexible hours or working from home, some even have shared work spaces and collaboration areas, beer taps, bean bag chairs and coffee from all over the world. Gone are the days of cubicles and pin drop quiet offices, it’s an always on world and business is moving faster than ever. Our work ethic hasn’t changed but the way we go about our work has. We’ve realized that we spend most of our day working (the sad truth) so why not make it enjoyable?
With collaborative work spaces comes collaborative team work – que the brainstorming.
Brainstorming brings many perks! Working creatively and collaboratively motivates those participating and the solutions are generally more accepted by everyone creating more support throughout the organization… wouldn’t that be a pleasant change for everyone? Brainstorming sessions build better employee relations, it leads to better and stronger products or services, improves productivity and even increases creativity! (ever hear of the “snowball effect”?– my favourite part is watching it happen during a session. One person says something and all the sudden it transpires into something larger than anyone could have imagined)
At NMI we eat, sleep and breathe brainstorming. We often schedule two sessions a week specifically for that. We recommend following these tips for a successful brainstorming session:
We encourage you to incorporate one brainstorming session into your work week. Set aside an hour and collaborate with your team, then let us know how it goes because we are incredibly noisy and like to hear if our methods are working well for others.