The ideal time to create new ideas

Ever found yourself coming back from holiday with more ideas than time to deliver them?

Or irritating the bejesus out of your colleagues after your summer break with all of your energy?

I was laughing with a consulting colleague only this week about this very risk. We’re both away in late June / early July and we know we’re both going to come back to the project with so much battery power we’ll drive everybody up the wall!

Whether it’s a staycation or a break away – there’s something about having your conscious brain more mindful and at rest that frees up some subconscious genius.

Whether you’re perusing the cocktail menu (well it won’t choose itself!), luxuriating over a perfect view or wondering if factor 100 sunscreen is just a bottle containing a heat resistant hazmat suit… your creative mind is set free to roam.

But have you thought about what you could do by anticipating and mastering that creative force? Or what it could do for your team?

The power of percolation

So, how can we harness that summer percolation power and amplify it for the whole team?

#1 Before the summer take a moment to step back and identify the key challenges that you or your team just haven’t wrestled to the ground this year.

#2 Then get your team to pitch in and refine your list to 2 or 3 key things.

#3 Then all go your separate ways for a relaxing summer and see what comes back.

Now I’m definitely not advocating working on holiday. I never do it. Nobody is writing 20-page pitches. Or project plans. Or board papers.

You’re just using the power of your collective at-rest minds to see what happens.

So, when you stumble on your genius idea whilst perfecting your buffet strategy you can feel very smug indeed. (And if you tell me you don’t have a buffet strategy, you’ve clearly missed the point of the all-inclusive!)