design:retail - April/May 2018 - 20

ask judy:

020

ADVICE FOR CREATIVES NAVIGATING THE WORKPLACE

I work in a fast-paced corporate
environment with back-to-back
meetings on my daily schedule.
My creative project work time is
shrinking-any suggestions?

- Meetings Overload

Judy: Creativity plays a role not only in projects, but
also in how you work. Why not look at your workday as an opportunity for innovation? Begin with
your own schedule. You can easily build in an hour
of work time every day by blocking your schedule
with "office hours." The last hour of the day generally works well. I gave myself this gift of time when
I was in a corporate office, and it was so efficient
that I wondered why I hadn't done it sooner.
Do you personally schedule and lead some of the
meetings? If so, how can you use a little ingenuity
to develop new practices? When I was at Target, I
provided an agenda for meetings, but added something new: a time allotment for each topic. I kept
an eye on the clock as I facilitated meetings to keep
the discussion on track. One of my goals was to end
every meeting early, with 10 minutes to spare. This
allowed the participants time for casual interaction with colleagues or some breathing room on
the way to their next meeting. The added bonus:
getting out early always put a smile on their faces.
The Wall Street Journal ran a story in November 2017 called "New Meeting Rules: Five Minutes,
Max" by Sue Shellenbarger, with eyebrow-raising
tactics for those frustrated with marathon meetings. She wrote: "Long-winded monologues and
PowerPoints are out. There's no time for small talk,
and less tolerance for 30- or 60-minute meetings
when five to 15 minutes will do. Participants must
learn to distill their ideas and requests to the conference-room equivalent of an elevator pitch."
Shellenbarger interviewed several CEOs for the
article: Aaron Shapiro, a chief executive at Huge Inc.,
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a digital agency in New York, who holds five-minute
meetings in huddles rather than booking a conference room. He also does "drive-bys" where he stops
in at someone's desk for a quick chat. Charlie Kim,
CEO at Boston software developer 121Nexus, occasionally schedules what he jokingly calls a "lightning
meeting" of which he says "has energy, it has action,
people are shocked by it and everything about it
truly moves." Jack Skeels, CEO of Los Angeles-based
management-training firm AgencyAgile, talked
about the three-bounce rule. If two meeting participants run a discussion back and forth three times,
the topic is tabled for future rescheduling.
Most surprising and humorous in the article
was the tactic employed by one executive who has
award-show-style music queued up on her laptop.
She is just one click away from signalling the end
to someone's conversational narcissim, not unlike
the Oscars when a winner has talked for too long. I
don't recommend implementing that strategy, but
it does illustrate how you can creatively think your
way to fewer, shorter meetings!

What can I do to boost my productivity
and offer more value to my team?

- Looking for a Boost

Judy: Rather than think about what you can do,
let's look at your question in reverse. Maybe what
you don't do may build your productivity in an
unexpected way. In his new book, "When: The
Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing," Dan Pink
draws on research from psychology, biology, neuroscience and economics to deliver a compelling

GLOBALSHOP.ORG

JUDY BELL
FOUNDER
ENERGETIC RETAIL

way to use your time to flourish in every area of
your life.
Pink explores the different parts of the day, noting where the majority of individuals find their
highs and lows of productivity. In chapter two,
"Time Hackers Handbook," he offers a menu of
"Restorative Breaks." Among them are:
* Micro-breaks: Pause and look at something
20 ft. away for 20 seconds, take a drink of
water, stand up and stretch.
Moving
breaks: Take a five-minute walk every
*
hour, do a few yoga poses at your desk and, yes,
maybe even a few push-ups.
* Nature breaks: Go outside for a short walk, or
if you can't spare the time, Pink says, "Pretend
you're outside...look at some indoor plants or
the trees outside your window."
If I don't have time for a walk, I sometimes page
through a book of nature photography. Within
reach on my drawing table is a book titled, "Wise
Trees" by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel. The authors
spent two years traveling to 59 sites across five
continents, photographing inspirational trees. The
strength of these trees-often massive, filled with
character and seemingly their own personalities-is
captivating in itself. Research has shown that looking at images of trees contributes to wellbeing and
cognitive functioning.
Taking time to pause throughout your day is a
solid place to begin your quest to add value. As you
experiment with this approach, you may notice
that you can focus on your projects more easily
when you return to work. From that benefit alone,
you will undoubtedly see your productivity expand
in new ways. As Dan Pink writes: "Sometimes the
greatest course of action is...inaction."
JUDY BELL IS THE FOUNDER OF ENERGETIC RETAIL (ENERGETICRETAIL.COM) AND AUTHOR OF "SILENT SELLING." SHE HELD AN
INSPIRATIONAL ROLE FOR 22 YEARS AT TARGET CORP. AND NOW
SHARES HER INSIGHTS ON NAVIGATING THE CREATIVE WORKPLACE
WITH DESIGN:RETAIL IN THIS BI-ISSUE COLUMN. SEND YOUR
QUESTIONS FOR "ASK JUDY" TO JESSIE.DOWD@EMERALDEXPO.COM.

http://www.energetic-retail.com http://www.energetic-retail.com http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.GLOBALSHOP.ORG

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