Find Your Best Ideas In Nature

May 14, 2015 | Branding Strategies

If you’re looking for a breakthrough idea get into nature. Get your team away from their desks and routines, and go find a place that feeds their creativity.

This week I had the pleasure of facilitating a marketing strategy session in Mont Tremblant. The environment was spectacular. The air was refreshing and invigorating. The space we worked in was energizing.

The experience reminded me that where you work shapes the outcomes.

Boardrooms Are Stagnant

Great ideas aren’t found in a boardroom, but that’s exactly where most teams do their brainstorming and thinking.

Shake things up. Get your team out of the office and into nature. The benefits are immediate:

  1. Unlock your creative brain: The boardroom is mired in routine and expectations. Getting into a new space places your team in a mindset to be more receptive to finding and sharing ideas.
  2. Lots of little breakthroughs: A-ha moments are the result of lots of little breakthrough ideas. When you’re immersed in nature and in your creative brain you achieve a lot more little breakthroughs faster.
  3. Increased energy: Being close to nature is energizing. It gives you that added boost to work longer and harder on an idea. It helps your team be more productive in a very concentrated period of time.

By breaking free of the routines of the office you get to better ideas, faster.

Go for a Walk

One of my techniques to kickstart creativity is to send people for a walk.

According to a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology walking increases creative output by 60%. And when you walk and talk in a beautiful setting the ideas come even faster.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very cooperative for our group on Monday, but I made a point of going for a vigorous walk to start my day. It was cool and rainy, but it felt great.

If the weather is cooperating send your team out for a walk. Break up into pairs and assign them a question or topic to discuss. You never know what they will discover, but walking and talking gets the creative brain working in overdrive.

Natural Light Is Energizing

One of the downfalls of boardrooms is their lack of natural light. It makes sense. Boardrooms are great for projectors and screens, which don’t work well with lots of natural light.

Hold your planning meetings in a place with tons of natural light. It will elevate your team’s energy and spirits.

I experienced this with the team on Monday. Often times people are looking for caffeine and sugar at 2pm to keep focused. Not this time. We were going strong all day long. If I had to chalk this up to one factor it was the natural light.

The Space Sets the Tone

TremblantLivingMy client, Tremblant Living, ran their strategy session in one of their properties in Mont Tremblant. It was a stunning log house.

The space was ideal for a creative meeting. The house had floor to ceiling windows that provided tons of light. We had large rooms to spread out and discuss ideas, and a big dining room table that functioned as a boardroom table.

The space really accelerated the creative juices. We could have held the session in an office, but we achieved so much more by being in the right location.

Kickstart Your Creativity in Nature

Nature is all around you. You don’t have to travel far to find a special place to hold a meeting.

The next time you’re looking for a breakthrough idea, pack up your things and go find a nice place to work. It will accelerate your creativity and help you find better ideas.

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Jeremy Miller

Top 30 Brand Guru

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