It is a fact that some places are more appropriate for creativity and innovation than others. Most of our more brilliant ideas and projects don’t happen while we are sitting at the desk. Our office is often a place where we «produce» and execute our projects, but our best ideas usually happen in the most unusual places!
Some like to take long showers or going for a ride. But even little distractions such as going to the bathroom may already provide the break that leads to a creative incubation period.
There is scientific evidence that our brain is more creative and innovative when it disengages from a fixation, because other parts of the brain may start to contribute too.
And there is where we come to travel, because neural pathways are sensitive to changes, so when we change the environment we are in, we are stimulating them. Furthermore, foreign experiences increase cognitive flexibility and enhance open-mindness and creative mindset. Not to talk about what happens when we interact with new people and culture!
Diverse experiences are good for creativity because they enable us to look at things from multiple points of view.
Business travel is not only an opportunity to make prospects or develop our business, but to boost our creativity and innovation, as we will be changing routine environments and interacting with new people. That’s the purpose, for instance, of Imagine Express (GEBTA Award 2016), «a program aimed to generate business in the Mobile sector», which takes place during a 4-day trip by train to and from Barcelona-Paris-London during the Mobile World Congress, where software engineers, creative minds and entrepreneurs, that haven’t meet in advance, travel together in order to generate apps for diverse strategic sectors, which will be presented to investors in London and in the MWC.
While companies are mainly focused in savings and productivity they shouldn’t forget the collateral benefits of travel and the very special environment it creates.
Travel can be a «place» where ideas happen!
Marcel Forns (c). GEBTA 2016
