Break the Workplace Norm and Take an Excursion

While I was writing the blog for the post below on April 26th, I realized how valuable an experience I had at Jones Apparel Group. My boss who was the design director created an environment that was more than just work. He made fashion design a real life experience by letting his team know about events related to fashion that we should check out. He was big on taking time out of the office once every blue moon and expose us to cultural events related to fashion. We did little excursions to the museum like, going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Chanel exhibit and the Dangerous Liasons, Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century exhibits. I also accompanied him to the Parson's School of Design fashion show. Of course we did the work related trade shows but, the events not directly related to work is what I loved because, it showed another aspect of our industry.

There's always going to be work to do, deadlines to meet and fires to put out but, once in a while it's good to Break the Norm and do a group event with your staff.

I think that if we have the opportunity to enrich someone else's lives then we should. It doesn't matter what industry you are in. There's bound to be some type of event that your staff can benefit from seeing together as a team. These little events around town are fun and of course educational. It gets you out of the office for a few hours to merge work with culture and history.

So go ahead, take the aftenoon off once and a while and treat your staff to a local cultural event that relates to your industry. You'll be looked at as someone who is a true leader, someone who is passionate about his industry while enriching yourself and your staff! If you're and employee, you take the lead and mention to your boss that you want do a group outing for a specific event. If he/or she is not interested, you and your fellow staff can still make arrangements. The whole idea is to grow oneself, to become more knowledgeable about your industry's past, present and future direction and to support this knowledge through engaging conversations. This is how you can become more valuable.