New Year Innovation: Will your Business Thrive or Just Survive in 2015?

With the New Year upon us, now is the perfect time to revisit business plans, review your goals and plan for the year ahead.

As the old adage goes – ‘Fail to plan – Plan to fail’ and this is no truer than for companies that fail to ensure that their business is pointed in the right direction and that all staff are aligned with their goals. If just one person has a different objective or has not bought into the vision of how the business should be developing, it has the effect of an anchor dragging along the seabed, holding you back.

Traditionally an annual review may include key stakeholders sitting around a boardroom table in the office, focused on a Powerpoint presentation of stats from the previous year. The challenge with this approach is that it has a tendency to stifle creative thinking and suppress innovation…

We have all experienced the ‘Death by Powerpoint’ and, when combined with figures and statistics, you have a recipe for sleep inducing, insular thinking - a state not ideally suited to lateral thinking and goal achievement.

It is not possible for creativity to occur in such a vacuum and it usually requires a minimum of two points of reference to work from…. A ‘what if we combined this with this…’ or ‘What if we did this instead of that…’, but it also needs the contributors to be in the right emotional state to be able to contribute freely, openly and completely.

The greatest change happens when you are able to get everyone involved and contributing to the greater vision and a magical shift occurs when you are able to combine three key ingredients:

Break the State – To achieve a different result, you need to be prepared to think differently and this is near impossible to do in the environment you work in day in, day out. Get your team out of the office and have some fun with it.

Create the Mood – Everyone must feel part of the team and be free and open to contribute their ideas, thoughts and concerns without censorship or suppression. This can be difficult, but is an essential part of getting everyone on board.

Follow a Framework – Innovation still requires structure – just look at some of the greatest creatives of all time – they invariably followed a pattern that allowed them to think creatively. Capture your new thoughts within a framework and you will have a map to follow.

At South Cerney Outdoor, we have created the ultimate environment for small teams to achieve this.

Firstly, we take you out of your office box and immerse you in one of the most picturesque and uplifting environments in the area at the heart of the Cotswold Water Park. We then present you with a challenge that will help build the confidence and trust in each other and create a team that is founded on communication and problem solving… It also happens to be immense fun.

If you choose to do so, we can help guide you on your very own ‘Vision Quest’… through an afternoon or evening in one of our traditional Sioux Indian Tipis, sat around the crackling fire with the sound of lapping waves from the lake creating the ideal background for you to drawer out the challenges and solutions for the year ahead. Combine this with a nice meal and bottle or two of wine and you may never want to leave.

For more information or to discuss your individual needs please feel free to give us a call on 01285 860388 or email michael.watling@prospects.co.uk

South Cerney Outdoor is a Lake and Land activities and adventure centre in the Cotswold Water Park, offering a range of water activities such as sailing, canoeing and raft-building with land-based challenges. Open to the public 50 weeks of the year and available for schools, colleges and corporate customers for groups of 10 to 200.