Why your best ideas happen after you step from your desk
Some of my best ideas happen when I am nowhere near my laptop (or phone).
Not when I’m in a meeting. Definitely not when I’m buried in emails. And certainly not while I’m ticking through my to-do list like it’s an Olympic sport.
The creative spark ignites when I give myself time and space to simply be.
This week, I allowed myself the opportunity to step out of the business for a couple of days. Attended a show, had real conversations, and wandered without a packed diary. Somewhere between my third lap in the event hall and a surprisingly insightful chat with an ex-colleague, my brain, well, sparked.
I wasn’t trying to force insight, but it popped up anyway because I finally gave my brain room to breathe and to innovate. Problem-solve.
When you get so deep into your day-to-day, your brain shifts into a reactive mode. You firefight, solve what’s (most) urgent, respond to who is shouting the loudest, and convince yourself that busyness is the epitome of progress.
You can try, but it’s unlikely you’ll succeed in rethinking a strategy in 15 minutes between meetings. You can’t uncover the issues if you’re using your energy to firefight the symptoms all the time.
Stepping out, even briefly, is like hitting a mental refresh button. You can zoom out. Patterns can emerge. Connections between dots that you may not have even seen before suddenly become clearer.
Why? Because when you’re in it, you can’t always see it.
It’s time to step out so that you can tune back in.
You don’t always need a formal agenda to be able to progress and move things forward. Sometimes, all it takes is a different setting.
Take a day out of the office with the team to plan the year ahead. No laptops, no slides, just post-it notes, coloured pens (maybe some highlighters), and space to challenge assumptions.
You’d be surprised at what can surface when people step out of their normal roles. Innovative concepts, deeper questions, and quite often an honesty that doesn’t fit into a weekly Teams call.
How about sending one of your team to external training? Not just as a reward, but as a deliberate and strategic act of cultural cross-pollination. They come back seeing things differently. They’ve spoken to people in different organisations with similar problems that are tackling them in different ways. They ask better questions, and bring in fresh thinking from industries or leaders that you wouldn’t typically interact with.
Even a casual dinner or shared coffee can unlock new thinking when the pressure’s switched off. Creativity thrives when people feel they are in an environment that is safe to explore and experiment, not just deliver.
These are not “perks”. They are critical moments that help shift the perspective and narrative. They strengthen bonds and invite your team to take ownership with you.
When people are invited to think beyond their roles, they tend to rise to meet the occasion and opportunity. With fresh ideas, increased drive, more ownership, and more accountability.
Shifting the culture to remove the guilt
I confess. I still feel a modicum of guilt, even after all these years, when I step away from the day-to-day. Even though it is my business. There’s a part of my whispering, “Shouldn’t you be doing something more productive? Is this the best use of your time?”
Here is what I have learnt and am continuing to relearn.
Stepping back is not ‘slacking off’.
It is how we refuel strategic thinking and prevent burnout from becoming a default.
That said, it takes more than telling people to take breaks or book a day out to shift the culture in a business. You have to build in the time to normalise fresh thinking, especially for more junior team members who might feel that they still need permission.
Here are some recommendations for small, yet impactful ways you can tackle this:
Schedule “idea time” like any other meeting. Even just 30 minutes a week in your diary can help. Just don’t fall into the trap of seeing it as movable time that you can repurpose...
Ask better questions in your 1:1s. Open doors, not checklists. Try “what is something that we haven’t tried yet, but you think we are ready for?” or “Have you seen anything that you think may be worth exploring?”
Create a ‘small bets’ culture. Encourage low-risk tests and micro-pilots of a new approach. Momentum can snowball with low-risk experiments that may yield unexpected results. (More on this in a future newsletter)
Model curiosity and learning at the top. When leaders demonstrate that they are open to learning and allow themselves the time to evolve and strategise, it gives the rest of the team permission to do the same.
We are not talking about grand gestures here. Remember that small moves can lead to a big shift, where little changes compound over time to generate a larger impact.
Moving forward enthused and engaged
So, here I am.
Back from an inspiring couple of days out conversing, learning, and observing.
Enthused with a plethora of ideas, direction, and focus. Reminded, that I need to dedicate time to my business as much as I dedicate it to those of my customers.
Stepping away gives you the altitude to see what’s going on from a different perspective. It’s where fresh thinking begins, assumptions loosen their grip, and you remember what you’re actually trying to build.
Whether it’s taking time out for yourself, sending a team member to an event, or sharing a coffee with a colleague, it’s in these small moments that we can create space for larger thinking.
Take the time. Let ideas crystallise. Then come back into the business, not just recharged or refreshed, but also recalibrated.
Because the best ideas aren’t buried in your inbox, between meetings, or hidden in your phone.
They’re simply waiting for you to step outside long enough to notice them.
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