At Ideabar, we believe that our talent is our best resource.
In fact, “More talent, less ego” is one of our five core values. When we lead with talent, we focus on the work, rather than ourselves. We are open for feedback. We can learn and improve.
A culture of more talent and less ego is a culture of constant growth. Ideabar fosters this culture through ongoing training and development opportunities that empower our employees to be the change that we all want to see in the world. This growth culture also ensures that we continue to attract the best talent to the agency.
Skill development makes people happy. Ongoing training is considered the most important decision-making factor by job seekers today. A study by Gallup showed that “workgroups that engaged in employee development saw a sales increase and profits double compared to workgroups that didn’t engage at all.”
Ideabar employees foster their own growth through personal development activities. We also regularly participate in company-wide training. Here are a few examples from earlier in the year.
Playing games to stimulate and synthesize ideas
Christina Papale, founder of Verbotin Group, visited Ideabar to help our team brush up on Design Strategy. During a two-part workshop, we learned the importance of playing games within a strategic process. Games – such as role playing, opposites, word association, scrapbooking and one of our favorites, I.W.W.M.W. (In What Ways Might We) – provide important stimulus to foster creativity. Capturing and synthesizing the output of those games into themes enables us to get to a big idea for a client.
Engaging people for connection
Our team also engaged Speakeasy to help us become more effective public speakers. An effective speaker conveys authority and energy, and a vital awareness of his or her listeners. We learned how to virtually communicate by using the best practices of actual connection to eliminate potential distractions. One major takeaway was to be aware of our breathing. Deep breaths allow more time for listeners to digest what we are saying, while also allowing us to showcase the best part of who we are.
Indulging in the Power of Awe
Ideabar’s parent company, Cox Enterprises, recently engaged world-renowned neuroscientist Beau Lotto to speak to our employees about how the brain works.
He underscored the power of shifting our perceptions to foster growth and development, and reminded us that humans, by nature, shy away from uncertainty. The one aspect of our lives where we enjoy uncertainty is play. Playful interactions inspire curiosity, creativity and a sense of awe.
When humans experience awe, we become more connected to other people, more creative and better able to tolerate risk and uncertainty.
We left this inspiring lecture with the desire to use play to generate creative ideas that bring a sense of awe to our clients and their customers.