Jul 23, 2018
Where do you come up with your best ideas? I bet it's not at your desk. In this episode we explore the conditions that lead to our best ideas, and how we can increase the chances of us coming up with even more great ideas in the future.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to episode two of the Leadership Today podcast. Each week
we provide practical advice to address some of today’s biggest
leadership challenges. This week we’re looking at A question I love
posing to people in leadership workshops: namely “Where do you come
up with your best ideas?"
Of the many hundreds of responses I've heard, not one person has ever said "at my desk". In fact, most people tell me they have come up with their best ideas when they're not at work.
People often say their best ideas come when they're "in the shower", "going for a walk", "taking a lunch break", "drifting off to sleep", and "on holidays". What do all of these activities have in common? They're all low-stress activities with few distractions. When people come up with their best ideas they're typically in a relaxed state, not stressing about coming up with an answer or distracted by other work that requires high levels of focus. They're free to think in a different way - free to explore new ideas and approaches.
The 19th century German chemist Friedrich August Kekulé pioneered our understanding of the chemical structure of benzene. He had been working with benzene for years, but the way the structure formed eluded him. Later in his life he recounted having a day dream where he pictured carbon atoms dancing, then forming into snakes that bit each other's tails, forming a ring. He woke from that day dream with the answer that had occupied him for so many years - the carbon atoms in benzene form a ring. Would he have come up with this solution with more time in the lab or at his desk? Maybe, or maybe not. But what a great example of how a relaxed mind can produce amazing insights where 'hard work' had failed.
Chronic stress largely destroys our ability to develop genuinely new and creative ideas. The very stress hormones that are great for focusing our minds on the 'emergency' at hand reduce our ability to take a broader perspective beyond the immediate. We end up suffering from tunnel vision.
As leaders, our emotional state is contagious. If we're constantly stressed and fire-fighting through our day, it's likely that our teams are doing exactly the same. We end up cursed to repeat the patterns of activity and thought that we've already established, missing opportunities for continuous improvement and breakthrough thinking.
This isn't to say that stress is a bad thing. In fact, stress plays a very important role in stretching us beyond our comfort zones and focusing our attention. But if these moments of stress aren't balanced by moments of recovery and relaxation, we're likely to see negative impacts - not just on the way we think, but also on our health. Chronic stress is a killer, but the combination of stress and recovery is the key to long-term effectiveness.
Here are some thoughts to help you to work more effectively and come up with new ideas:
So where do you have your best ideas? I’d love to hear from you.
As for next week’s episode - Do you want to decrease your risk of dying in the next 7 years by 34%? I’ll be looking at the research showing a dramatic relationship between control at work and our health.