Thinking outside (no box required!)
I was speaking to a room packed with one hundred advisers,
When the words from one leader: they gave such a scare.
We were studying cultures where our teams would best flourish,
When he said: “We don’t encourage creativity here!”
And yet few would deny that without innovation
Our work can lose relevance in a fast-changing sphere.
It’s too easy to slumber in routines and safe thinking.
‘Til one day you awaken and your world’s disappeared.
What fascinates me still is the places we think best:
Where inventiveness flourishes and our minds tend to soar.
In the shower, in the loo, when we run, when we’re swimming.
But I’ve noticed a source from which wondrous ideas pour.
For surely you’ve experienced what happens to your mind
When you’re outside, in awe of what nature unfolds?
Who ‘mongst us has never been richly inspired
by scenes, where words fail what our eyes, gasping, behold?
It’s away from our desk, from the noise of the babble
That shouts from our screens and drowns whispering thought.
That digital noise that screams for our attention
Let’s leave it behind, before we’re overwrought!
For the truth I’ve discovered is it’s hard to change thinking
When we’re still in the place where our first thoughts were formed.
When we breathe natures wonders, there creativity flows, and
We unleash fresher thinking, and our views are transformed.
Take a break from our pods! Let’s escape from our office!
From the voices so urgent, that cry loud in our head.
Get outside! You’re a creature who was never created
For best thinking ‘tween walls. Walk the meadows instead.
So, unplug, to recharge your rich energy transcendent.
Urgency seldom helps us to see with new eyes.
When our stress is relentless, we lose our agility
To evolve and to blossom; to be newly surprised.
The box you’ve created: the world you’ve carved out, has
Become the creator of mechanical mores.
Get outside! go enjoy undistracted attention!
There’s a new world awaits you. And it all could be yours!
There’s a new world awaits you. And it all could be yours!
