Family outing acting as data mining exercise to improve mind creativity

– Managing from the daily happenings standpoint

Everyone know the importance of the maintenance of an open mind as a resort to catch details and new ways which can help the development of potential solutions for the daily basis issues we are confronted.

Being these personal, professional or familiar related issues, I believe that every opportunity of interaction with people that I have already, or not, met, as well as by means of personal, remote, by phone, even written contact, offers singular and precious insights to be, at the adequate time, filtered and employed to guide possible solutions.

The same contribution can be expected when you are visiting different places, or the same places under different circumstances or contexts. Your refined sight will determine the richness that can be “data mined” from the environment in front of you, in certain occasions.

Surely, not all the time you will be aware of these likelihoods. In conversations with old friends, sometimes, I have the perception about the same facts we lived together in the past under different manners. This happens because what is remarkable for an individual can be trivial for others.

The origin, the environment, the family habits, the cultural influences of that time, as well the first years socializing in the school till the adolescence arrival, without a shadow of doubt, will shape how your perceptions will act to give you answers about the interactions you are maintaining though your life from there on. And this behaviour still continue like this and evolve.

Revisiting your mind after the events you experienced is a good exercise to ask yourself about: “what is still relevant carry ahead with me once exposed to this situation?”. Summing, multiplying, dividing and deducting, which will be the good outcome from that “experiment?”.

At this point of the text, you, yourself, patient reader, must be asking: where this crazy guy is trying to guide me to?

I’ll humbly try to explain.

In a certain Sunday ago of this new Season for us in Global South – the Spring, my son, as common as it is to other eleven years old child in our days, would like to search, “in loco” – in the toy store, for new car miniatures, increasing his small collection with different models.

Visiting a toy store as adults is like a trip to the past, when we, ourselves, can compare our times as children with old and new versions of toys, ways to play in different paces and intensities, coming from board games to children’s books, to remote controlled vehicles, different sports balls: soccer, basket, baseball, tennis, football, rugby, table tennis, etc., beyond the way we used to play alone or with other family members and colleagues.

Why do not enjoy the visit also assessing, even under a moderate to superficial sight criteria, the innovations and solutions presented by the toys industry – really a material source to inspire and catch the attention of so demanding public, to the market?

This makes me remember a movie of the 1980’s, named “Big”, with Tom Hanks at the main character, which was the first of his many Oscar® award nominations, from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Wishing be adult before of his time as child, he awake at the morning in a body of an adult, but maintaining the mind of a child with his thirteen to fourteen years, if I’m not wrong. After some incredible happenings, he is guided to counsel the president of a toys’ factory. His suggestions succeed one after other, ramping up the sales and attracting the envy of the company executives. And all due to his creativity.

Maybe you, your team, partners and family are needing to make a joint visit to a toy store, trying to refresh the minds. This simple and cheap exercise can put together different generations in amusing situations, also contributing to the engagement of the work to advance in new ways through the empathy among the team members.

Of course other modern techniques like brainstorming, six hats, Delphi, among others can replace this, at first sight, silly option. But the interaction would not be the same, when you are outside of the office, almost informally.

Due to that aspect of “uncage” people from the office influence, the big companies already understood the importance of the leisure time in the office – as done at Google or Meta HQs or branches/offices, also, at certain times along of the year, promoting meetings where, beyond the serious strategies to be announced to the team, the time spent in games with the executives and coworkers is fundamental to bring each other closer, supporting reach the outcomes and goals established and expected by the organization.

Think deeply about that. 🤲🌎🤲

#Creativity #Innovation #TeamEngagement #ManagingInnovation #TeamWork #LeisureAtOffice #SixHats #Brainstorming #Delphi

Post initially published on Linkedin platform, in Nov-21-2024.

Link here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vagner-da-silva-8a5101329_creativity-innovation-teamengagement-activity-7265505895286022146-rH9u?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop