Google leaves a small one page document in the bathrooms of their engineering building that is designed to spark curiosity. A person can’t help but pick it up and see what’s on it. Most of it is too complicated for the average person, but it works to spark an engineer’s mind to think in a new direction. Planting a little seed can spur great ideas.
We need to challenge ourselves at our jobs. We get complacent and even irritated when we have to do something new. Instead of looking at it as an opportunity, we complain. We just need to be open to new problems because they create the most potential for professional growth.
One of the reasons why children are so loved is because they have the ability to challenge us and open our minds to new ways of looking at the world. We may get irritated and frustrated, but we keep on loving them because of the potential that they possess. If we can give a tiny portion of this mindset to our work, we can extract joy from our jobs that we never thought possible.
Next time you are using the bathroom, try utilizing that time to dig into your imagination. Try finding ways to become more compassionate to an annoying co-worker. If you are in sales try imagining an object you are selling as a 3D entity that you can spin around at will. This might not spark your mind to come up with a brilliant plan, but if you keep planting that seed something good will come from challenging yourself to think in new ways.
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Wow...I liked this chapter and can't wait to get the ebook. I liked the idea of planting seeds. In addition to the bathroom, I think it could be expanded to other rooms,for example, leave some 3X5 cards with opened-ended questions about the business in the break room...just to get people thinking. I also liked that you included consider improving relationship with your co-workers in the brainstorming ideas...I'm looking forward to getting your book:~)
by the way, the Enter Your Email Box isn't working. It says that the subscribe by email isn't enabled.
Hi Sara, I love your suggestion. A company needs to keep people curious and having fun. Little 3x5 cards is a great idea.
I tried to include the email subscription in the blog post, but for some reason it doesn't work. If you subscribe in the upper right hand corner, it works there. I'll try to get it right for the next post.
Now I want to use the Google bathroom just to read the one page doc!
I agree there's so many ways to unleash our best on the job if we put our minds to it. Life's not static. Our job's aren't static. I find one way to grow yourself a lot is by growing your job and taking on bigger challenges. Your job is only a container if you let it be a container. I think it's a container of putty waiting to be reshaped.