“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” --Alan Alda
Hello from Anne and Helen at Creations Unlimited, LLC. Hope you’re enjoying these beautiful, if unpredictable September days!
We just spent an entire day in a meeting! Our day consisted of planning details of our upcoming booth at the Tacoma Holiday Food and Gift Festival (October 21-25 at the Tacoma Dome). This isn’t our first all-day meeting, and we have come to realize how much we look forward to these days, and why they inspire us with joy (and not dread). So, we took the time to identify what makes our meetings fun, productive, and extraordinary. Here’s what we discovered:
1. EASE. We ease into our workday…welcoming each other, filling our coffee or teacups, offer culinary treats, and have everything pre-organized and set out, ready to begin. We’re human beings first, not production robots.
2. AGENDA. We have goals for the day, and a set agenda. Our plan is flexible and we allow for an influx of new ideas, additions, corrections, editing, and changes as need be. New, better, and more creative ideas come pouring forth with an open atmosphere of supportive exchanges of thought.
3. GET TO IT. Our agenda for the day is full, and somebody has commuted to the meeting, so we are motivated to make the most of our time. We cruise through the steps of our plan, thoroughly, but at a good, steady pace.
4. SHARE GREAT CUISINE. Lunchtime! We go out to one of our favorite haunts, a café which in itself inspires us by its beautiful interiors and wonderful food. Our conversation is everything but business so we really feel like we’ve taken a break.
5. SHOW, TELL, AND CALL. Back to work after lunch, we again waltz into work by doing something truly fun first. We show our new products, innovative prototypes, or share raw, but exciting plans for future designs. Sufficiently enthusiastic now, we get back to our to-do list. We discuss gaps in our plans, and rally help from people who excel in areas we do not. We make phone calls on the spot—less to do later—and our questions get answered immediately.
6. TASKS LIST. We list every task that needs to be completed by a certain deadline, and then divvy them out according to the talents and strengths of our team. Whoever is best at doing a task gets the job. This way, everything not only gets done, but we also get the best and fastest results. Having a show looming automatically poses the deadline for us, but if you don’t have a set deadline, put one on the calendar so your hopes and dreams don’t drift into the never land of oblivion.
7. DINNERTIME! If we have a marathon business day then one of our meals is homemade. It can be either lunch or dinner, but one of us hosts a meal at our home. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just good. Anne is a champion at meals. She loves to cook, and her meals show it. Her gourmet feasts nurture and sustain us, and reinforce strong, shared, personal bonds. If you want a cohesive team who will work their hearts out for you, provide outstanding perks for them. Take care of people and they will take care of you. This is our way, our sendoff (small gifts are nice too). We haven’t forgotten life’s niceties, and small kindnesses and terrific hospitality are key, and often overlooked, in business.
That’s it until next time. We hope you find our successful meeting tips helpful. We invite you to visit our website at www.creationsunlimitedllc.com to see our growing product line and link to our fantastic associates. To ensure quality, we only provide links to those companies we use ourselves.
Blessings!
Anne and Helen
“Around here…we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” --Walt Disney
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