Have you ever noticed that moving your body helped you be more creative? You feel stuck on a project, then go for a walk and finally have that breakthrough idea. A-ha!
Turns out, a recent study shows there is a link between being active and creative. According to a New York Times review of this study on the creativity/movement correlation, “active people come up with more and better ideas during tests of their inventiveness than people who are relatively sedentary.”
This study bears out what I’ve seen over the years facilitating team retreats and creatives sessions of all kinds. When some form of movement is included in these kinds of sessions, the outcomes are better. People come up with more ideas, and are more playful and inventive in their thinking.
With this is mind, when you’re gathering your team for your next strategic retreat or creative session, find ways to incorporate movement. Here are some ideas:
- Do small group work at different stations around your workspace. Design activities or prompts at each station that take 5-30 minutes. Have people rotate from one station to the next completing the activities.
- Normalize standing and moving around a room during brainstorm sessions. You may need a leader to model the behavior so people see that it is ok to get up and move around.
- Schedule a game or competition that involves some movement. Musical Chairs. Scavenger hunt. Rock Paper Scissors. They can be short bursts of energy to break up more sedentary activities.
- Schedule a walk break to/from or during lunch time.
- Have someone lead a stretch break after sitting for 1 hour or more. Even one minute of movement can make a difference for the energy in the room!
- Use standing desks or cocktail tables in addition to traditional seating options. Offering some seating can be important, as most teams have people of all different abilities and not everyone may be able to stand for a full-day session.
- Some teams may be able to add in specialized or more advanced activities: bike rides, runs, different sports. I’m looking forward to the day an organization asks me for a team retreat that includes a run or hike (it’s part of the reason I started my sister business, Right as Run)! Before you do this: know your team and their comfort levels with this kinds of activities.
What not to do: gather a group of people to solve problems, make them sit in a room for 4+ hours, cross fingers they come up with magical ideas. This is recipe for feeling tired, not inspired. It’s even worse for full-day sessions after lunch. There’s a collective thud of everyone’s energy crashing into the ground.
If you need help planning a team retreat, check out this other YAY blog » Design a Compelling and Effective Retreat or email me to see if I can help!
Featured image: A creative session with Butler University where we tested standing and tossing a ball while brainstorming ideas.