#intrapreneur Tag
IMAGINESS gift (23)

Take a daily respite break

Taking a break during work does not necessarily restore your energy.

It depends on what you do in it.

Activities you take during your break influence your energy levels and subsequent performance. John Trougakos and his colleagues make a major distinction between breaks characterized as respite and chores.

A “Respite” break happens when you stop working as well as thinking about work and participate in activities that has a relaxing or pleasant experience. For example, you take a brief walk, listen to music, or surf the Web (aimlessly).

In contrast, a “chores” break happens when you stop the work you are doing, but turn attention toward another work-related responsibility. For example, checking email or making a to-do list for the rest of the week. In these cases, activities involving mental efforts continue to take place during the break, thereby preventing the restoration of energy levels.

In their book “Thriving under stress”, Britt and Jex explore studies that explain the results of increased positive emotional displays after “respite” breaks, compared to the negative emotions produced after the “chores” breaks.

So, keep this mind the next time you want to take a break. If your next break happens to be a “chores” one, know that you’re exercising at least some level of self-control that’s not allowing your brain to fully restore its energy level. Only breaks characterized by detachment from primary work tasks will aid in the restoration of energy levels needed for performance.  

Not all breaks are created equal.

Choose wisely.

Taking a respite break, cheers,

Randah Taher

Seven hats and minds

Here’s a thought experiment that will help you wear different hats to increase the chances of finding creative solutions.

When facing a certain problem at work, on a piece of paper write 7 types of jobs that are as far from your current career as possible. For example, a nurse, a truck driver, an architect, a fire fighter, a winter sports athlete, a carpenter and a lawyer are examples far from my line of work.

Now thinking about one specific challenge you have at work, frame it as a question and write it down. “i.e. In what ways can we speed up our client’s onboarding process?”.

Write a few ideas on how to solve it in a list.  

Next, using the list of jobs you have, ask again the same question of your challenge borrowing their heads this time.

For example: how would a nurse see this problem? In our example: In what ways can a nurse speed up the “onboarding” of patients?. How would a truck driver view it? “How would a truck fleet owner  onboard ongoing new drivers?”

Provide a list of ideas for each one of the suggested professions and questions. Or better yet, ask someone who has this role for ideas. The more out-of-your-way the career is, the better ideas to pollinate from.

The end result will show you not only how boring your original ideas are, but how magnificent those creative juices started to flow in your head coming from different directions. You know how seven, no, eight, lists of ideas. If each list is only 10 ideas, well, you do the math.

Stay creative, while staying safe.

Randah  

Have you experienced a good facilitated session?

Alone, together. When it comes to collaborative work, give facilitation a chance.

Sajory_Illustrations-06

Lone wolves don’t howl out loud

You are an Intrapreneur. A maverick. A corporate innovator.

It feels sometimes that you’re a lone wolf.

You see things differently. There are always possibilities. You swim against the stream. There seems to be a lot of inefficiency. You wish your superiors will simplify things and consider a new point of view.

It feels sometimes you’re a misfit. Yet somehow you are connected to others and have a reputation of getting things done, even if in your own unique way. That gives you a chance of being heard. You have some proof to vouch for your creative ideas.

Sometimes you get stuck with others not understanding your solution or getting on board with it. Sometimes you can’t seem to move the discussion beyond the “we don’t have a budget” and the “this is now how we do it here” broken records.

You wonder if you’re singing a lonely song or you still cannot find your pack.

I hear you. And truly understand your situation. I’m here to listen to stories if you wish to share. You can stay anonymous and find a cool nickname to use. An animal, a plant or an object of your choice.

By sharing your story with others, you’ll be able to connect with other mavericks, and see how new versions of the same stories have sold its dilemmas.

The destination to your happy place is out there, you can reach and celebrate with like-minded mavericks, if you’ll howl a bit louder today.

Tell me what’s on your mind. I’m listening. 

#IAmAMavericks