It was nearly a decade ago when I had hit a wall, I was searching for inspiration for a new sales strategy to hit a target we had previously been unable to reach as an organisation, I knew we would have to do things we hadn’t done before or re-visit things that hadn’t worked in the past but I was struggling to visualise this.
As a senior leader it weighed on my mind and I carried it with me. Inspiration can hit us at any time and I can remember vividly where mine struck. I was in London at meeting that fortuitously ended nearly 3 hours early. My wife had taken the kids to visit relatives for a few days so I had nothing to rush home to so I chose to hop off the tube early and head to London Zoo for an interesting lunch location.
As a member of the Zoological Society of London we often visit either London Zoo or their sister Zoo Whipsnade Wild Animal Park for a couple of hours here and there as these visits don’t cost us anything more than our annual membership and I often find it quite relaxing.
On this occasion they had been blessed quite recently with the arrival of bouncing baby tiger cubs and the world’s media had seemingly descended on the zoo. I thought I would walk around to the tigers to see what the fuss was all about, then pop to the restaurant grab a little lunch and then hop back on the tube to head home having only had a brief pit stop at the zoo.
Upon arriving at the Tiger enclosure I found 20 to 30 photographers with long lenses vying to get the best shot of the tiger newcomers and at the back of the viewing platform an invitingly comfortable bench. I decided to set myself down on the bench and wait for the platform to clear so I could get a good view. Whilst waiting I pulled out my laptop to take a look at a slide deck where I had started to form my strategy.
In hindsight I realise that a combination of ‘no one is looking at me’ and being in the open air gave me space to think differently and the inspiration of a new beginning in the enclosure nearby gave me a nudge too. In the next 15 minutes I had a breakthrough in my strategic thinking and pulled together the outline of a strategy that would lead to a record breaking year for my organisation and change the way I thought about strategy.
Since that day if I want to think differently I go somewhere different; most often, now the golf course.
