It's a question that many entrepreneurs need to ask themselves but many don't. Why do we believe that an office means sitting in a room, on a chair, with a desk and computer screen in front of us, confined by 4 walls? If you are a one-man band, you tend to show more flexibility, but once entrepreneurs start employing people, down go the curtains, the door is shut and everyone is tied to their desks until they have completed a good days work.
Is this conducive to higher productivity and greater employee satisfaction?
It's not just entrepreneurs that suffer the fate of routine and fulfilling what they believe is an expectation. I don't know how many times I have said to my staff for them to work from home, a park, the beach - whatever, particularly when they have a deadline to meet and the phone in the office doesn't stop ringing.
They just don't do it and if they do, they don't do it often enough. Yes, a small business will always need someone in the office to answer the phone, but other than that, are we not better encouraging our people and ourselves to sit on a park bench and write a proposal, or enjoy a day at the beach with an umbrella and ipad? Are we really going into the cloud for little reason at all?
Training ourselves to change our routine, open up to the environment and a more creative space, is hard. It means we need to alter our expectations. Be adaptable to change. Mix up our routine a little. Talk to people we wouldn't normally talk to. Have fun in the workplace.
Just food for thought. This week I am going to mix it up a bit and work odd hours, spend time walking in the park, create havoc in the office and send every single person out for at least one hour on Monday to walk the streets of the cities in which their offices are in and take in their surrounds. Soak it up. See who is advertising, what window displays stand out, the best coffee outside the 100 metre radius and so on.
What can you do to mix it up in your office and create a bit of joy?
Mellissah Smith
Mellissah Smith is a marketing expert with more than 20 years experience. Having founded and built two successful marketing companies internationally, she is well recognized as a industry thought leader and innovator. Mellissah started her career working with technology and professional services firms, primarily in marketing, public relations and investor relations, positioning a number of successful companies to list on the various Stock Exchanges around the world. She is a writer, technology developer and entrepreneur who shares her thoughts and experiences through blogs and written articles published in various media outlets. Brag sheet: #2 marketer to follow on Twitter (2003), Top 150 Marketers to Follow (2015), Top 10 innovative marketers (2014), 60K+ followers on Twitter with 97% authentic.
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