Saturday, August 28, 2010

MarketingSherpa: Reality Marketing Story Part II: Four Lessons on Branding, Logo Creation, and PR

MarketingSherpa: Reality Marketing Story Part II: Four Lessons on Branding, Logo Creation, and PR
n 15, 2004
Case Study #CS488:

Reality Marketing Story Part II: Four Lessons on Branding, Logo Creation, and PR

SUMMARY: Welcome to reality TV MarketingSherpa-style! As you may recall, we're bringing you a behind-the-scenes look at an integrated online/offline campaign for a new kids DVD as it happens -- mistakes and results included.

This week the hardy band of marketers learn four tough lessons, including:
- Why focus groups are critical to chose brand names
- Logo design is harder than you may think
- How reporters reacted unexpectedly to a launch release

Yes, also includes an open-access link to Part I (in case you missed it).

By Contributing Editor Anna Murray

Here's the second installment of our ongoing as-it-happens Case Study on an integrated marketing campaign. (Link below for Part I on how the agency won the account.)

This week we caught up with Jeanniey Mullen in LA where she was on site for the taping of the first episode of The JammXKids, new the direct-to-DVD kids' TV series her agency The Lift Network is handling marketing for.

She asked both her 5-year-old daughter and her mother to accompany her there “as a built-in focus group. I wanted people who would be brutally honest with me to see it. I wanted to know what we were up against in the real world,” explains Mullen.

So far the real world's had four tough lessons for her team as they launch the new brand:

Lesson #1: Run brand names past your demographic prior to launch

The producers of the show came to Mullen and her team with a concept. "They liked the word 'jam' because they felt it was a timeless word that communicated 'dance,' so initially the title of the show was 'Get Up and Jam."

At her 5-year-old daughter's sleepover, Mullen decided to ask the kids, "'What do you think when you hear 'Get Up and Jam'?"

One little girl replied, "Is there going to be peanut butter?"

This sent all parties involved into a whirlwind of brainstorming, which eventually resulted in the series being renamed, "The JammXKids."

"Later, when I asked the same little girl what she thought about 'JammXkids' she said, 'Cool!" says Mullen.

Lesson #2: Logo design for kids is harder than you think

"For corporate logos," Mullen says, "you follow the rules and guidelines. Kids entertainment breaks all the rules. It has to appeal to the parents, it has to appeal to the kids."

In competitive research, "We learned that there really was no logo standard," says Mullen. Broadway Kids, Kids Bop and Kids Dance Party, "All have logos that are just names. There is no excitement and enthusiasm." Plus, it had to communicate:
-Fun
-Action
-Music/Dance
-A Hip Hop style

"In addition to appealing to parents, the logo has to appeal to kids," says Mullen. "So things have to be very REAL. Kids think of things differently. They are much more concrete. They are not going to get subtlety and innuendo. It's about face value. So the logo had to communicate all of this."

One final logo challenge: "We loved the name The JammXKids," says Mullen, but the challenge was-- it's really long. "We knew we were going to need an icon to stand for the whole thing, like 'JLo' or an image."

Ultimately the logo design team chose an urban/graffiti feel for the typeface and focused on the X element because it is used in the production. “To supply the action, I designed a jumping, bouncing note that could be used with the type or alone,” explains John, the designer who worked on the project.

Lesson #3. Triple check the target demographic with your client

"Our perception," says Mullen, "from reading the script, was that this show was for 4-8-year olds. And the writer has 3 young kids. I'm sure he read it to them many many times. Everyone thought it was a product for about this age range."

But, casting had selected three kids who were 15. "When we saw the cast and the production, and edits made to the script since they last sent it to us, we realized we were WAY off. The target age was really 6ish to 16, and the message and plans had to be supplemented to change."

Mullen confirmed this suspicion with an on-site focus group. "Since I couldn't get to email or any of our tools for modeling, I conducted a poll of the 20-30 extras to solicit their impromptu feedback."

All the marketing research they had done and plans had been centered around the younger age range. Based on what Mullen discovered, that all needed to change, dividing the marketing targets into 3 groups:

a. Younger "emulators" who will look up to the cast members and aspire to be like them
b. Peer "relators" who will identify with the cast members
c. Parents of all, who would foot the bill to purchase the DVDs

Lesson #4. PR: Reporters go online instead of calling

"The biggest challenge we've had on this project," says Mullen, "is that this is a huge multichannel initiative. Each activity and event has to build on the next, and each thing is affected by the others."

Mullen's discovered the channels are linked in unexpected ways.

"For instance, we really didn't see the corporate PR release and the web site as closely linked initiatives," says Mullen. But it turns out that they were.

"We worked with the PR group to put out a corporate press release-- not the one to the news media, but to industry publications like the Hollywood Reporter. At the same time we put up a very basic web page, with just the logo and a contact link."

"Well, most of the response generated since the press release hit has come via the web site. We've gotten several emails. It's averaging about 2 per day."

Inquiries have come from both the national and local level, including a cable network that has expressed an interest in licensing the show and a restaurant chain who wants The JammXKids to do concerts. “It suprises me that with so little information in the market about The JammXkids we are getting such serious interest.” said Mullen.

So, if Mullen had known people would ignore the contact info on the press release and go directly to the website for more, would she have put more information up on the site?

"Actually no," she says. "At this stage, it's almost better being elusive. We can make meetings with people to talk, and shape our presentation around the audience. People don't get preconceived notions."

MarketingSherpa: Social Media, Online Videos and Contest Change Brand Perception: 7 Steps that Connected with Prospects and Increased Leads 30%

MarketingSherpa: Social Media, Online Videos and Contest Change Brand Perception: 7 Steps that Connected with Prospects and Increased Leads 30%
Aug 26, 2010
Case Study #CS31698:

Social Media, Online Videos and Contest Change Brand Perception: 7 Steps that Connected with Prospects and Increased Leads 30%

SUMMARY: Having a high-end, prestigious brand is usually a good thing -- unless that image is preventing you from attracting certain desirable prospects.

Read how the team for a temporary office space provider designed an edgier marketing strategy to counter their image as a high-cost, unattainable solution for New York City startups and entrepreneurs. Using social media, online videos, a contest and in-person events, they boosted leads 30% and revenue 114% -- and got the green light to try similar tactics around the country.

by Sean Donahue, Editor


CHALLENGE

Rebecca Tann, VP Marketing, Regus, oversees the team that generates leads for the company's office space, meeting rooms, and other temporary workplace options in cities across the U.S. In late 2009, the team was tasked with developing priority campaigns to boost revenue and occupancy in a handful of specific markets, including Manhattan.

The team's previous marketing strategy for the New York region been focused on traditional media, such as TV and radio advertising. But this approach wouldn't fit within the constraints of the team's new mandate.

"Based on what we had done in New York City, we knew that media is extremely expensive," says Tann. "We had a limited budget, but we needed to make the same kind of noise."

Tann and her team saw an opportunity to develop a new marketing strategy that went beyond the company's traditional marketing comfort zone -- and was more in tune with the personality of the New York entrepreneurial market.

CAMPAIGN

The team focused its lead-generation campaign on startups, entrepreneurs and small or sole proprietor consultants. Connecting with these smaller, "scrappier" companies required new messaging delivered through new media.

The integrated campaign included:
o A sweepstakes
o Viral videos
o Social media outreach
o In-person events

Here are the seven steps they followed:

Step #1. Conduct market research to develop messaging strategy

In order to attract small startups and entrepreneurs, Tann's team needed to understand what these prospects were looking for in office space -- and what they knew about Regus.

The research project included:
o Demographic analysis of Regus' existing New York tenants, including company size, industry breakdown, etc.
o Analysis of competitors' marketing approach
o Online and social media monitoring of entrepreneurs' conversations around Regus, or office space in general
o A survey of companies with the target prospect profile, asking questions about their perception of Regus

This research produced a key insight: Many entrepreneurs perceived Regus locations as high-end, high-priced, "prestigious" office space, more appropriate for larger businesses than startups.

"These folks might be viewing Regus as higher-end, more costly alternative -- and that's not the case," says Tann. "We had to cover that with the campaign."

To counter this impression, the team decided that its messages should stress that Regus office space was attainable, affordable and in-tune with the needs of startups and entrepreneurs.

Step #2. Create campaign microsite to receive traffic and capture leads

Another insight from the team's pre-campaign market research was that roughly 90% of its prospect inquiries in New York came from search or direct visits to the Regus website. This statistic reinforced the team's decision to create an integrated campaign with a strong online focus.

The team created a campaign microsite to receive traffic and capture leads from its online and offline outreach:

- The microsite, www.regusnewyork.com, used text and imagery that reflected the New York City business environment, to reinforce the local nature of the campaign.

- The site also supported:
o The registration form for an online sweepstakes (described below)
o Links to other campaign creative (described below)
o An offer for two months of free office space with the phone number and link to an online inquiry form

Step #3. Conduct "free office space" sweepstakes

The team created a sweepstakes as one of the anchor elements of the campaign. The contest offered one year of rent-free, furnished office space in a Regus building in New York.

The sweepstakes was designed to:
o Build buzz and generate media attention
o Fit with the campaign's theme of "attainability"
o Provide content to share on social media (more on this tactic, below)

Press outreach and online promotions for the sweepstakes directed visitors to the campaign microsite to enter the contest.

Step #4. Create humorous video series

Another anchor element of the campaign was a series of online videos that positioned Regus as an option for small, startup companies.

The three videos offered a lighthearted take on the problems entrepreneurs and startups face when trying to conduct business without a permanent office.

Scenarios included:
o A small company trying (with great difficulty) to hold a meeting on a subway
o An entrepreneur struggling to work out of a coffee shop
o A startup trying to court an investor in a public park, with disastrous results

The end of each video included a tagline about the need to get "a real office," and presented the phone number and URL for the online inquiry form. The team also included mentions of the office space sweepstakes in text descriptions beneath videos or within on-screen advertisements.

The team promoted the videos in several ways, including:
o A RegusNYC YouTube Channel
o Links shared on social networks
o Email messages to customer and prospect lists
o An advertising buy on Taxi-TV, a network of television monitors in the back of New York City cabs

Step #5. Participate in social networks

The team incorporated social media as a key channel to spread word about the sweepstakes and videos -- and to engage with their entrepreneurial prospect base.

The team created new accounts and developed specific communication strategies for the following social networks:

- Facebook

The team used its Regus NYC Facebook page to share news and promote discussions about business, entrepreneurship and work life. The page was updated two to three times a week, and posts included links to interesting articles, resources and events for the New York City business community.

- Twitter

The team created a Twitter account to act as a resource for New York entrepreneurs. Like the Facebook page, the Twitter feed shared links to articles and resources for business people, alongside occasional reminders about the sweepstakes and online videos. The team updated its Twitter feed several times a day.

- LinkedIn

Rather than creating a corporate LinkedIn group, the team chose to interact with existing, relevant LinkedIn groups.

Using her personal account, Tann joined LinkedIn Groups dedicated to New York small business networking, or for specific New York industries, such as accounting and law. She then participated in discussions, or responded to individual user's questions about topics relevant to Regus, such as discussions of how much small businesses should spend on office space.

Step #6. Sponsor in-person events for entrepreneurs

The team also participated in old fashioned, in-person networking with its target audience by sponsoring nine business events in New York City.

Rather than hosting the events themselves, the team partnered with established small business organizations in the city, such as:
o NY Tech Meetups
o Gotham Media Ventures

Those groups hosted networking events at Regus office facilities in Manhattan, which brought prospects into Regus facilities and gave the team's sales representatives a chance to network with the target audience.

Step #7. Monitor response and track leads from all channels

With so many campaign elements in play, the team had to carefully measure and track response during and after the 90-day campaign.

Measurement tactics included:

- Tracking requests generated through the inquiry form on Regus' New York webpage. The online form included a drop-menu for prospects to specify how they heard about Regus.

- Tracking entries into the office space sweepstakes. These names were not handed directly to the sales team, but marked for future nurturing campaigns, so the sales team would not be inundated with unqualified leads.

- Measuring the source of visits to the sweepstakes microsite.

- Measuring clicks on YouTube ads, Facebook posts and Twitter updates.

- Using unique phone numbers for the calls-to-action related to the New York campaign. The call center team was also instructed to ask callers how they had heard about Regus.

- Conducting weekly calls with the sales team to track offline impact of the campaign. For example, if a representative in one of the Manhattan locations met a prospect who said they'd seen a Taxi-TV ad, the marketing team could gather that anecdote as an evidence of the buzz generated by the campaign.


RESULTS


Changing both the medium and the message paid off for Tann's team, as the campaign exceeded expectations.

After the 90 day campaign, the team saw:
o An overall 30% increase in lead flow, spiking to 60% during the height of the campaign
o A 33% conversion rate on leads generated through their New York webpage, compared to a 12% conversion rate in 2008
o A 114% increase in revenue generated, compared to the same period the year before

"It was a wildly successful campaign that gave us the freedom and approval to do this on a larger scale," says Tann.

Thanks to the success of the New York campaign, the team has rolled out similar efforts in other markets around the U.S. They've been able to repurpose the online video and develop free office space sweepstakes in other cities, and have begun a national social media strategy to connect Regus with prospects.

"Truth be known, this is something I wanted to try on national level for some time with Regus," says Tann. "This was my testing zone to prove it in one market, before selling internally."

How Whirlpool Raised Customer Loyalty by 68% by Revamping its Site Using Persona-Based Design | MarketingSherpa

How Whirlpool Raised Customer Loyalty by 68% by Revamping its Site Using Persona-Based Design | MarketingSherpa

Jan 02, 2007

Case Study #CS2688

How Whirlpool Raised Customer Loyalty by 68% by Revamping its Site Using Persona-Based Design

Like many major consumer brands, Whirlpool's website originally sprang from a talking-to-the-masses approach rather than truly engaging each individual consumer. How can you design and copywrite a website that truly, individually appeals to consumers with very different psychographic profiles? Discover how the team researched and created eight specific visitor-type personas. Plus, how they measured results in a meaningful way even though the site is for brand and service rather than direct ecommerce.

CHALLENGE When Jeff Davidoff, Whirlpool Brands Marketing Director, joined the company three years ago, he inherited a site that was heavy on data and low on delivery.

"It was a 'We're-talking-at-you,' flat execution online," he says.

So as he began to develop a "new and improved Whirlpool.com," he wanted to get to the heart of the user to drive website development decisions, from the overall feel of the site to the tactical issues surrounding functionality.

His goal -- to meet the needs of differing groups of individuals within the same site and even on the same page.

CAMPAIGN Pleasing more than one type of consumer demographic meant relying on a persona-based redesign process where the target demographic would be sliced into tightly defined segments and profiled via "personas."

Davidoff and Dan Cooke, Manager Interactive Marketing, explained to us how they created eight personas that drove the rest of their web development decisions.

-> Step #1. Look at overall target audience

From a brand perspective, they had to start with overall positioning or the team could have gone too far afield. "We have a target audience, the 'active balancer' who juggles the demands of a career and family life," says Cooke.

The 'active balancer' helped inform the tone and voice of marketing materials. "But we didn't know how we were going to address her needs, and that's where personas come in," Cooke says.

-> Step #2. Persona development

The personas did not necessarily fall under the heading of the 'active balancer.' That's simply "the platform that tells us what we stand for," says Cooke.

The team looked at the different kinds of consumers that come to the site, seeking their pain points and the reasons they were coming to the site. To understand consumers, the team studied existing qualitative and quantitative (conducted by Whirlpool or secondary sources); a series of interviews with real consumers; call center data; website activity statistics.

Based on the findings, they created four "core" personas and four secondary personas. The four main personas were:

--Purchaser under duress (someone whose refrigerator has just broken down and has ice melting all over the kitchen floor, for example) --Planned remodeler --New owner --Owner with repair

The personas were given ages, names, families, occupations and income. The team also created a grid which showed other considerations of the personas, such as their most valuable sources of information (Consumer Reports, sales people).

Each persona also had several paragraphs of text explaining in detail their mindset when they arrived at the site, the trigger that sent them there and their approach to a resolution. Each profile a photo of a real human being to help the creative team visualize the target audience.

Davidoff describes the personas as "the creative brief come to life, the eyes that guide you through the development process."

You can't always trust your own eyes because you're too close to the process, he adds. "We had [the photos] up all the time, all over the place," says Davidoff. Throughout the campaign, the personas' pictures reminded the team to use less "I think…" and more, "well, this persona thinks."

-> Step #3. Development of voice

While the personas are different people with different needs, the copy couldn't reflect too much disparity in tone. "So we established a tone for the whole site," Davidoff explains. "We refer to it as a breezy practicality."

Then, depending on the area of the site, that tone could be "very concise or a little more flowing," he notes.

For example, in the tips area of the site, the tone is more conversational, whereas in the product areas, where people want to simply get to the point of the purchase, the tone is more direct.

-> Step #4. Development of functionality

Websites have many paths to solutions. "People navigate and think in different ways," says Cooke. So once the personas were defined, the trick was to create navigation that would work for them all.

The team created two main ways to navigate. Tabs at the top allowed users to navigate by "all products," "parts and accessories," and "customer support." Or, they could go to one of three clickable buttons in the middle of the page: Kitchen, Laundry Room and Whole Home.

Then, different functionalities were created to appeal to different personas within the site. Two examples:

o Example 1. For a duress purchaser, Cooke explains, "Your ice cream is melting and you need something today. So, how do we help you make decisions quickly?"

On product pages, the team created a set of choices to help narrow the search in what otherwise is a very complex category. Users can narrow their search for refrigerators by type, by finish, by height and by width. Once an item in one of those subcategories has been selected, a user can go to the next subcategory to narrow the search further.

Users can also select up to four items to compare side by side. "Without even leaving the page you whittle down what might be hundreds of selling SKUs to a more manageable consideration set," Cooke says. While Cooke wouldn't share exact numbers, he did say, "We know that people in large volumes are using the side-by-side tracking."

o Example 2. For the remodeler, whose purchase is more considered and who therefore has more time to explore, the team included a couple of different functionalities. First, each of the three areas (kitchen, laundry room, whole home) includes a "showroom" with highlighted hotspots for users to note special areas of consideration.

There's also the ability to email a product. "So if you're shopping at work, you want to send it home to your inbox to talk about it with your spouse, you want to email it to your home builder, it helps you pass on this information," says Cooke.

-> Step #5. Measure

The team conducted a customer loyalty survey online, breaking satisfaction down through seven questions: --Would you purchase the same product again? --Would you buy another product from us? --Would you buy only my brand? --Would you ask for my brand? --Would you overrule a sales person? --Would you switch stores if they didn't have my brand? --Would you recommend the brand?

Davidoff's team was able to differentiate users who had purchased a product and visited both the old site and the new site, based on the dates they had registered the product. Those users received the survey via email.

The team also included a pop-up for new registrants. To be considered a "loyal" customer, they had to choose the "definitely would" answer on four out of the seven questions.

RESULTS
The new site increased page views by 42% (while decreasing the amount of time it took users to reach the correct page by half) and reduced the amount of pre-purchase email and phone questions by 35% and 25%, respectively.

The site also saw a 10% decrease in the number of visitors who abandoned the site directly from the home page.

Last but not least, Whirlpool's customer loyalty index increased by 68%.

Friday, August 27, 2010

3 Reasons Why Business Books Are Bad for You | BNET

3 Reasons Why Business Books Are Bad for You | BNET
I read more business books than anyone I know, which is ironic because I can’t stand most of them. That’s not to say I hate all business books — after all, I’ve written one — but 95% go on one of two lists: “if you don’t know this already, you should be working at the DMV” and “if you do these things, your company will become the DMV.”

A cynical view? I don’t think so. Here’s why.

First, most business books use stories to cover over their complete lack of insight. This week, I read a galley of a book that I hope will never come out. After some catchy anecdotes about hero CEOs, it advised, among other things, that leaders figure out what’s really important, then do those things. It went way out on a limb by saying that great leaders are remarkable at forming relationships. And (are you sitting down?) the best leaders are honest when a strategy isn’t working.

Are you kidding me? How about we add that true leaders can dress themselves, use full sentences, and bathe before work.

Second, the stories themselves often highlight the wrong message. Here’s an example. I mentioned Zappos in a talk I gave, and Tony Hsieh, the CEO, was kind enough to endorse my work. Now I get lots of emails asking for an introduction to him. I almost never pass them on. Why? Because Tony, like me, is tired of repeating what no one ever hears: the Zappos story isn’t about Tony. It’s about a group of people that aligned on the same vision of what that company could become and pulled it off by sacrificing, working hard, and participating. If people copy only Tony’s actions, they won’t end up with a Zappos; they’ll end up bankrupt.

Business success isn’t a checklist, and that’s the implied message from many business books: do these things and you’ll be the hero. Business success is a dance: with the market, employees, investors, customers, landlords, and creditors — not to mention spouses and kids.

Third, most business books are air sandwiches: empty in the middle. One of my mentors told me to read the first and last chapters of a book, because everything in the middle is either stories or takeaways so simple that watching Mr. Rogers is a better use of your time. I’m too obsessive-compulsive to follow this advice, but in 95% of cases, it would be better if I had.

Business leaders need a reboot on the ideas that make organizations run. Is your time best spent reading business books, or talking with people with radically different ideas? Put down the business book and go interact with ideas that challenge you, frighten you, or piss you off.

People often ask me what the best business books I’ve ever read are. Here’s my list: The Odyssey, Atlas Shrugged, and Ender’s Game. None are about commerce or strategy. Read The Odyssey to understand character, purpose, and discovery. Read Atlas Shrugged to clarify your own position on how the political economy should run. And read Ender’s Game for how genius and leadership pull people in opposite directions. (Two of the three are well written — you can figure out which is the outlier.)

None of these books have takeaways, or to-do lists. None preach. They will make you think.

Anyone brave enough to venture into these waters with me? What are your favorite non-business books that teach you a lot about business?

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Six Secrets to Creating a Culture of Innovation - Tony Schwartz - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Six Secrets to Creating a Culture of Innovation - Tony Schwartz - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

When IBM recently polled 1500 CEOs across 60 countries, they rated creativity as the most important leadership competency.

Eighty percent of the CEOs said the business environment is growing so complex that it literally demands new ways of thinking. Less than 50 percent said they believed their organizations were equipped to deal effectively with this rising complexity.

But are CEOs and senior leaders really willing to make the transformational moves necessary to foster cultures of real creativity and innovation?

Here are the six fundamental moves we believe they must make. In all my travels, I've not yet come across a single company that systematically does even the majority of them, much less every one.


  1. Meet People's Needs. Recognize that questioning orthodoxy and convention — the key to creativity — begins with questioning the way people are expected to work. How well are their core needs — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual — being met in the workplace? The more people are preoccupied by unmet needs, the less energy and engagement they bring to their work. Begin by asking employees, one at a time, what they need to perform at their best. Next, define what success looks like and hold people accountable to specific metrics, but as much as possible, let them design their days as they see fit to achieve those outcomes.
  2. Teach Creativity Systematically. It isn't magical and it can be developed. There are five well-defined, widely accepted stages of creative thinking: first insight, saturation, incubation, illumination, and verification. They don't always unfold predictably, but they do provide a roadmap for enlisting the whole brain, moving back and forth between analytic, deductive left hemisphere thinking, and more pattern-seeking, big-picture, right hemisphere thinking. The best description of the stages I've come across is in Betty Edward's book Drawing on the Artist Within. The best understanding of the role of the right hemisphere, and how to cultivate it, is in Edwards' first book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
  3. Nurture Passion. The quickest way to kill creativity is to put people in roles that don't excite their imagination. This begins at an early age. Kids who are encouraged to follow their passion develop better discipline, deeper knowledge, and are more persevering and more resilient in the face of setbacks. Look for small ways to give employees, at every level, the opportunity and encouragement to follow their interests and express their unique talents.
  4. Make the Work Matter. Human beings are meaning-making animals. Money pays the bills but it's a thin source of meaning. We feel better about ourselves when we we're making a positive contribution to something beyond ourselves. To feel truly motivated, we have to believe what we're doing really matters. When leaders can define a compelling mission that transcends each individual's self-interest, it's a source of fuel not just for higher performance, but also for thinking more creatively about how to overcome obstacles and generate new solutions.
  5. Provide the Time. Creative thinking requires relatively open-ended, uninterrupted time, free of pressure for immediate answers and instant solutions. Time is a scarce, overburdened commodity in organizations that live by the ethic of "more, bigger, faster." Ironically, the best way to insure that innovation gets attention is to schedule sacrosanct time for it, on a regular basis.
  6. Value Renewal. Human beings are not meant to operate continuously the way computers do. We're designed to expend energy for relatively short periods of time — no more than 90 minutes — and then recover. The third stage of the creative process, incubation, occurs when we step away from a problem we're trying to solve and let our unconscious work on it. It's effective to go on a walk, or listen to music, or quiet the mind by meditating, or even take a drive. Movement — especially exercise that raises the heart rate — is another powerful way to induce the sort of shift in consciousness in which creative breakthroughs spontaneously arise.

These activities are only possible in a workplace that doesn't overvalue face time and undervalue the power of renewal.