If you’re walking around Philly today, chances are you have spring fever, like me. As it turns out, that urge to ditch your desk and go have lunch in the park is pretty healthy, and might actually help you work smarter.
Beyond thinking about green space as a purely physical phenomenon, I’m intrigued by the notion of cutting through the mental clutter to find an oasis of the mind (if you will) in the midst of the usual day-to-day. What inspires us? And where do we find the room and mental clarity to support fresh thinking?
Nonprofits that are challenged by the ongoing need to deliver services, manage finite resources, gauge effectiveness and come up with the ‘next big idea’ feel this pressure constantly. Consider new ways to spur your staff and leadership to pause, reflect, and think anew. Have the usual staff meeting offsite somewhere less formal than your conference room. Designate a bi-weekly or monthly roundtable discussion that pulls people away from their desks for a more free-wheeling discussion of programs, opportunities, and left-field notions that excite them, then drill down to explore.
At Fairmount, we hold periodic brown-bag lunches that gather our team to talk about anything and everything they’re working on, reading or thinking about, and wrestling with. It’s a great way to pull back the curtain and spark connections and new ideas across our teams.
Meet me in LOVE Park, and we’ll talk more.