Here’s what I did in one week.
1. Serve at your company’s helpdesk or call center for a day.
- You get the weirdest (most creative) questions to which you have to find the answer, and in the process, you learn a lot (about your company and its services).
- You get to know all sorts of people by referring people to them or calling them to find out things for your caller.
- You get to solve complicated problems.
- You get to have a smile on your face and be patient (hey that’s a change!).
- You get to see things from a different angle.
2. Use your lunch break to paint a picture for your office wall (if you have an office wall).
- Painting completely gets your mind off things.
- You use your right brain.
- It’s fun.
- People will be jealous of your original artwork (or not, but it’s definitely a conversation starter).
- Your office space becomes more likeable and creative and ‘you’.
3. Ask a random department if you can attend one of their meetings.
- You get to meet new people.
- You learn new things and might get some good ideas for your own department.
- You get to be relaxed in a meeting because there is no pressure and no action items will be piled on you.
- It improves inter-departmental communication (management loves that!)