Where the Fish Swims, Ideas Fly

By Pam Nochlin

Paul Bennett, chief creative officer of Ideo, a global design consultancy, views one of his most important roles as inspiring people. That entails learning to say no, scheduling less meetings and getting more connected…

I wasn’t fully able to perform my job as a leader for inspiration, because my time was not really my own
I was hyper-scheduled, at one meeting after another, with very little time in between
One particular day my brain almost exploded and I felt as if I was losing myself
It was time to act. I just stopped saying yes and started saying no to things
My goal now is to give myself more time to simply be
So I sat myself permanently and resolutely in the most visible and central spot in our office which lets conversations and interactions happen naturally
I try to spend about half my day at the help desk and the other half allowing myself to be pulled, to drift in and out, and to be available for five-minute or two-hour interactions depending on what’s needed
I feel as if I am part of a living, breathing organism, and responding to its needs rather than simply running from place to place with a calendar in my hand
It makes me feel that I belong to a community, and that our interactions are more organic
Now I don’t spend all day locked in rooms, talking in meetings. Instead, I’m doing stuff with people. I have a new way to engage genuinely with my colleagues. It transmits an important cultural value that we espouse here at Ideo: Talk less, do more