Author: Stacey Sultar

When we are in the office, we often spend our entire day sitting. This is not only harmful on the body, but it can also dull your concentration and creativity. When you go from your computer to the conference room to your couch at home, this leaves little room for exercise in your daily routine. Luckily, there’s a rising trend in business meetings that may address these problems: walking meetings.

The Research

Studies have shown that taking walks increases blood flow to your brain, resulting in sharper concentration and higher cognitive function. It’s also a stress reliever that can allow you to think more clearly and focus on the tasks at hand. And the benefits don’t stop there. Our bodies are not meant to spend long periods of time sitting, and this has a myriad of negative health effects. For instance, our spines curve after several hours in our office chairs, limiting our lung capacity and placing undue strain on our spinal cord.

The Benefits of Walking Meetings

Walking not only corrects these physical and mental side effects, but can actually make your meetings more productive. Walking with someone, for instance, reduces the amount of eye contact, which allows us to let our guard down and significantly increases our comfort level. Studies have actually shown that brainstorming sessions conducted while walking result in more unique, creative solutions.

In addition to producing better results, walking meetings can also promote wellness and a healthy, engaged company culture. It gives you the opportunity to get to know your colleagues better, as people are more likely to open up while walking.

When to Sit Down

Of course, it can be difficult to conduct a walking meeting if there are papers or files you need to look at. Similarly, the aforementioned study found that in situations where there is only one solution to a problem, it’s actually more productive to sit down and focus on the problem. So walking meetings should maybe be reserved for brainstorming, interpersonal conversations or planning meetings.

However you choose to implement walking meetings in your company, you’ll likely find that your staff (and yourself) are more productive both during and after the walk. The physical and mental benefits of walking, in addition to the more casual feel of standing shoulder to shoulder with a colleague, can encourage creativity, increase camaraderie, and promote productivity in the workplace.

Don’t wait – schedule your walking meeting now, and let us know how it goes.

Our business world is changing faster than ever, and the ability to grow and innovate is what drives successful companies. However, many businesses find that their growth slows or stalls after a period of great success. There are many warning signs that foreshadow one of these slow downs, and if you pay attention to the signs, you may be able to keep your company’s mojo going.

Ignored Feedback

One of the most immediate signs of lost mojo is a lack of meaningful criticism. Whether the feedback comes from customers or the lowest rung of the employee ladder, no business can survive if it doesn’t actively listen and respond to feedback. Every company will receive criticism, but when the critiques are powerful and consistent, pay attention. Failing to do so can so serious harm to your business.

On one hand, you’ll be unable to address critical shortcomings that can eventually lead to stagnation. You may lack strong customer service or consistency in product quality. Whatever your weakness, if you’re resistant to change, you’ll inevitably run into a major roadblock. On the other hand, if you ignore the feedback and suggestions of your employees, you run the risk of discouraging innovation. Your staff will no longer feel motivated to improve the company, and without someone championing your cause at every level of the organization, you won’t be able to maintain your desired level of growth.

Loss of Innovators

With that in mind, innovative thinkers are often drawn to businesses that are open to change and creativity. If your company is losing its mojo, you’ll begin to see these key innovators leave in droves. If they aren’t challenged in their work and their creative talents aren’t put to use, they will move onto greener pastures, leaving your organization with a limited talent pool. This is a major indicator that you aren’t pushing boundaries or exploring innovations in your industry.

Quantity Over Quality

Pay attention to the mindsets of upper management. If they become solely committed to the numbers, your company may be in trouble. Focusing on the bottom line rather than the future vision for the company can be a death sentence. Innovation and transformation are what drive success, and if you’re only concerned with numbers, you’re failing to leverage valuable opportunities to advance your brand. Whether it’s investing in more feature-rich software or seeking out creative talent, you should be open to new opportunities for growth. Don’t get mired in tradition or by-the-books business practices. Embrace new technologies or methods to encourage growth for your business.

Unsustainable Growth

On the flip side, it can be dangerous to focus solely on growth. It’s better to achieve vibrancy through gradual, well-planned growth than to aim for a meteoric rise to success. Growing too quickly can burn through your resources or result in a workload that overwhelms your staff. In turn, you may find yourself hiring second-rate employees to keep up with this growth, which can often be counterproductive. Instead, to synchronize growth in every aspect of your business, focus on building your infrastructure gradually.

Pay attention to the warning signs, and you’ll ensure that your business maintains its mojo and its competitive foothold in the marketplace for years to come.

How does your company keep its mojo going?

For generations, American culture has prioritized the individual. Employees were encouraged to look out for their own interests and find the best possible way of getting ahead in their industry. However, this “it’s all about me” focus has negative impact on the company, co-workers and particularly innovation.

Teamwork and collaboration has been proven to be the key to generating new ideas and sparking innovation. Here are three ways companies can use collaboration to accelerate ideas within their industry.

Encourage an Open Dialogue

A culture of collaboration creates an environment that nurtures ideas and innovation and improves employee satisfaction. There are many ways to promote collaboration, from encouraging employees to share their opinions with upper management to company town hall meetings to organizing regular brainstorming sessions. This opens avenues of communication between team leaders and various departments of the organization, allowing for a more effective implementation of ideas across the company.

Throw Out the Book

Following the rules can get in the way of innovation. In many companies, there’s a lot of unnecessary red tape, so collaborative “rule-breaking” with other departments may be necessary to simplify business practices. During your next staff meeting, ask your employees:
• Which policies are getting in the way of their creativity?
• What is hindering their ability to perform their tasks effectively?
• Do you hold too many meetings?

It may be as simple as a more relaxed dress code or as complex as whittling down the layers of communication required to implement a new idea. Collaborate with your staff to simplify your rulebook and keep only the essentials in place.

Hold Intensive Training Sessions

Innovation is a skill that takes practice to be mastered, and one of the best ways to do that as a team is through group training sessions. These can be in-house events or company retreats designed to facilitate creativity and forward thinking. You can focus on themes such as idea generation and implementation, effective teamwork, and individual creativity. Effective trainings can not only help with critical skill-building, but they can also help reinforce the idea that each employee has the opportunity to affect the direction of the company. Your team will be more cohesive and better able to tackle unique challenges as a result.

Without collaboration, innovation is impossible. But collaboration isn’t simply a machine that creates new concepts—it also improves communication and the overall efficiency of your team. By implementing these three collaboration tips, you’ll help your staff become more cohesive, productive, creative and innovative.

What are you doing to drive collaboration at your company? We’d love to hear what’s worked for you.

For most professionals, the idea of giving or receiving feedback is uncomfortable at best, and may even be downright cringe-worthy. There’s also a prominent line of thought that all “feedback” is negative—especially among those who work for or with people who only communicate when there’s a problem, and never provide positive feedback.

However, feedback is critical to a high-performing organization. Studies have shown that a lack of communication contributes to 80 percent of issues in the workplace.

If you’re one of the many who struggle with feedback, here are five tips to help you give and receive feedback that’s positive and worthwhile for yourself, your team, and your organization.

Make feedback a daily habit

Feedback is often associated with annual reviews or performance reports, but it doesn’t have to be formal—and it shouldn’t require a stack of forms or a permanent file. Offering casual feedback on a regular basis is a great way to improve your ability to give and receive it, as well as an excellent opportunity to make positive changes in your company.

The best time to give casual feedback is immediately after the action that prompted the feedback. This includes both positive and negative actions, whether it’s interrupting a meeting inappropriately or a particularly great customer service activity.

Don’t classify feedback as “positive” and “negative”

While the actions of employees or co-workers may be helpful or poor, you can provide better and more balanced feedback by viewing it as simply feedback—neither positive, nor negative. If you see feedback as a neutral, almost journalistic action, you’ll be able to get your point across clearly without offending the receiver of the feedback.

You can apply this same idea to receiving feedback yourself. Even if the person offering feedback frames the message in positive or negative terms, remind yourself that it’s simply information that could be useful. This helps you avoid responding emotionally, and ensures you get the most value from the feedback being given.

Consider your feedback goals

Before you decide what to say when giving feedback, you should understand why you want to say it. Having a goal helps you deliver feedback that is relevant, useful, and helpful to the person receiving it.
Ask yourself questions like, “What kind of information do my employees need? What would help them succeed in their jobs?” The broad goals of any feedback should be to let employees know how they’re doing and to encourage positive, productive behavior in the future.

Assume the best intentions

If you’re offering critical feedback to an employee, approach with the assumption that their actions had a positive intent. Assume that your employees want to perform positively and effectively—and you’re simply offering feedback that will help them accomplish those positive goals. In truth, most people are looking to do better, and will appreciate suggestions that will help them succeed.

Get specific

Particularly when it comes to critical feedback, it’s important to talk about specific examples of actions and behaviors that should be improved, rather than making general, broad statements. For example, if you notice an employee walking past a customer who’s clearly in need of help, state that in your feedback—rather than accusing the employee of being insensitive to customers’ needs.

And if you’re receiving feedback, seek out specific details when they’re not given. Remain non-defensive in your tone and body language, and ask for details about the situation, such as a specific example that the person giving the feedback might have observed.

Giving and receiving feedback doesn’t have to be painful or uncomfortable. When you make feedback a habit and approach with the viewpoint of using it as a helpful, effective communication tool, great feedback can benefit your entire organization.