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STFD on your comfort zone

Posted by on 29 February 2012
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Get out of the house and "shut the front door" on your comfort zone.

Somehow we have been lulled to sleep and our economic engines aren't turning properly. And, it is likely YOUR fault. In actuality, we're all to blame. Innovation is the only sustainable competitive advantage and we're not contributing. We're not getting outside our comfort zones. Here, we have some therapies to help you break free and find a way out of apathy town.

Consider this the start of a therapy session for creativity and innovation. There are only five steps, but you must complete them all'and if you attend FUSE or follow the updates, that will be the breakthrough week.

The therapies are as follows: Relocate, Mingle, Touch, Pause and Recruit.

One // Relocate :
Everyone draws inspiration from somewhere and most can't draw it from a place they are currently occupying. If you sit at a desk in front of a screen most of your day, or find yourself staring at the same people in meetings, get out. Set up somewhere else. Meet somewhere unexpected [NOT your local coffee shop]. Get out of your typical physical space. Museum. Grocery Store. Somewhere quiet or loud, but more important, somewhere you don't frequent. New physical surroundings have an impact on what we see and what we see has an impact on how we think'so relocate to think different.

Do it once, then do it once a week.

Two // Mingle :
Meet people you wouldn't expect to meet. Call it networking, call it making friends, call it socializing, just get to it. Meet people doing what you could never do or people doing what you have never heard people do. Meet with a bias toward diversity, not in the color of skin, but in the color of the grey matter (assume divergent thinking causes our brain matter to shade different colors'just go with it). If you're in engineering, meet with marketing. If you're a "creative" meet with operations. You will be uncomfortable, but you will appreciate it later.

It isn't a new idea, its called "liberal arts"education.

Now, just so no one gets overwhelmed and decides apathy is more comfortable, we have shared two steps as a start. The other three (Touch, Pause and Recruit) will be posted next week. Try these for now and report back.

akeller@capsule.us

Note: Want to save money on your FUSE registration? Use discount code FUSE12AK for 15% off!

This post was inspired by an image posted to the NextBigDesign, FUSE Inspiration Board on Pinterest, originating with the blog, "Where does the magic happen."

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