John Joseph is president and co-founder of DataGravity.
work environments in technology have expanded well beyond the limits of our office walls and in our personal lives. We now see people working on trains and planes and on their mobile phones and tablets.
A new era of tech events began
We're back in New York in November for the 4th edition of our technology event focused on growth .
The truth is that with mobile technology available to us today, office boundaries do not really exist. But some questions remain: is the traditional office is the only place real work is done? How do we define the same job? And with the work itself ingraining in our personal lives, can we really disconnect? There is an influx of workers without borders, but what about the workers beyond work?
Get out of the work
If you are a worker of innovation, you are rewarded for presenting visionary ideas that solve problems and change dimensions in a measurable way. Your boss might call this out-of-the-box thinking; it's a cliché, but with connotations on target.
office walls you can box in physical and creative; it can leave you with ideas that get stale predictable. collaboration in the workplace is important, but new ideas often come from our personal experiences and our lives in the community.
In fact, it is sometimes when we do not "work" at all in the traditional sense that we have our best ideas. When employees are away from their work, they can actually improve productivity and quality of work.
Leverage of human connection
is an example. Have you ever watched people mix through a local train station or coffee? Observe their actions can illuminate the way we think to live, work and communicate.
Quick sprint of a man to catch the train or how the woman sitting next to you at the cafe organizes its files could inform the next move you make in designing your product. The way your son negotiates his way staying up an hour later could plot your next tactic motivation for your sales team.
Take a step back and observing human interaction happens around you may bode well for your business. New ideas may well places you least expect.
Exercise your brain muscles
Work different muscle groups makes for a healthy body and brain sections of exercise can produce healthier and more productive employee. Employees should try to spend their weekends or holidays do something completely unrelated to their professional activity.
For me, fine woodworking and construction serves this purpose. When I work with various materials and to transfer a vision in a mantel or a fluted column, I'll build a whole entirely different intellectual muscles.
When applied to the workplace, these creative fibers can lead an interesting thought. It is a "place" where there are no limits or rules. It is raw canvas where imagination can run wild.
is an example. On a weekend winter snow in the last few years, I was working on a home improvement project, to recreate the master bedroom to make her look the Federal period, with many fluted columns and moldings.
As I routed pieces of wood, a meeting customer of the previous week started playing in my head. As I poured over the details of my woodworking, discussion customer in my head started to play a different tune I've heard outside the walls of the office.
I discovered that the story we told was to be completely revised, the client does not look the situation in the same way we were. This home transformation project allowed me to see the discussion of a different perspective that I took out of my work environment and allowed my creativity to flow.
Next week we rewrote the presentation of the company, resulting in a very different and positive.
embrace ideas
Not every idea has triggered outside of work is revolutionary, but business leaders also need accept that every great idea is born in the boardroom.
Do not be afraid to convey an idea you had while pushing your daughter on the swing or watch the game. Employees must be dynamic thinkers and look at a situation from different angles to see the possibilities. If they are too set in their work and trapped in the area, they could miss obvious alternatives or opportunities to make things simpler.
This flow and examination of ideas is where the new productivity index is measured, and these ideas often come to people outside their work days.
business finally gets personal
Customer relationships are built between people, and construction of these connections is essential to the conduct of business. The development and growth of your -ality "person" keeps you up to date, relevant and relatable to your customers.
This is why the business leaders sometimes need to leave their work and release of the box to s exposing other things their businesses, so they can connect with customers, prospects, colleagues and others to a level from person to person.
So to answer the questions at the beginning, not the office is not the only place of work is done. Creative work is sometimes done even before we realize during our daily lives and personal interactions.
We are entering an era where work and life overlap. However, it is possible to disconnect, get out of the box, and we need to do. It is in these times that some of the best ideas and business solutions can emerge.