A team member explains how company retreats with structured brainstorming break people out of narrow roles and expose gaps where colleagues need help. The key is a deliberately safe, non-judgmental space where people like Aaron, Jenna, Kelsey, and Andrea can contribute ideas without pressure, regardless of whether they see themselves as naturally creative.
So a big part of our retreats is generally a brainstorming session. We're working on something, an idea for a new product, an idea for a new book, an idea for a rollout, marketing. For me, there's a couple things. I love that we do that because my job generally doesn't entail those things. I'm not in marketing. You know, I've got my tasks that I'm working on. And you can get a little bit tunnel vision with what you're doing. And so for me to become aware of what another big overarching goal is for the company is really helpful. It ties me into what everybody else is working on. I kind of get the perspective of where their energies are going, where they may need support, you know, because I know that that's only part of Andrea's job, or that's only part of Jenna's job. There might be something else that I might be able to take off her plate so that she can help roll this out or whatever. So it gets me out of this like very, very tunnel vision, narrow space that I have. And the second part of that is that I really love how safe we make these brainstorming sessions because I'm not a creator. I don't flow creatively like you do and Jenna does and Kelsey does. I think you guys can just like riff ideas off constantly. I mean, almost constantly it seems like you guys could come up with something new. That's not how I work. That's not how my brain works. And there are times when I've been part of brainstorming sessions, like the first couple times I went and we had these, it's intimidating because like you want to contribute something of value. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't be the silent George. Don't be this. Yeah, exactly. But if you can't, or you just— I've been free to say, guys, I'm sorry, I just, I've got nothing on this one. Like, I'm just literally hitting a wall with this one. No problem. There's not even a blink, not a look, nothing. It's just like, oh yeah, that's how it is sometimes. And we roll on. There's no pressure. It's a very safe place to just be who you are. I think Aaron and I align a lot sometimes on what we feel like our strengths are. And it's funny, we're both like the admin positions. Like, give us a task and we'll go through it. Don't tell us to make up a task. That's not our thing.
