On Eran Gefen and “half an hour of inspiration”
Eran Gefen is the founder of G^Team, a strategic consulting company that helps managements and CEOs develop new growth engines. Has experience working with leading companies in Israel and around the world, including: Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Kimberly Clark Strauss, Walt and Soda-Stream. A previous company he founded was bought on By Wix. Geffen runs the podcast “Half an Hour of Inspiration” and is the author of the book “Creating Growth – How to Turn Business Creativity into a Work Plan”. This list is based on a chapter from his book.
The biggest problem with managers today is that they are “too busy”. Like it’s a badge of honor. They think they deserve some kind of trophy. In a society that sanctifies productivity, being “busy” means being supposedly successful. We don’t pay attention to it, but blurt out stupid proud statements in front of our colleagues and even worse – in front of the children: “Wow, I had a crazy day”, or “Mom is very busy”, and somehow feel a little important.
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But the truth is that in the new era, if you are too busy, it is a sign that something in your personal strategy is simply defective, or it does not exist or it is not implemented. But I started to feel ashamed of myself every time I noticed that I was too busy for myself or for the things that were important to me.
Parable of the dry land and the first rain
To invent the next big thing, to create, to initiate, to create something beneficial, we need space. A space of attention, a space of imagination, a space of time and silence. It’s not a treat, it’s not a whim, it’s an existential need for us as humans and also for the businesses we lead.
And yes, I know the diary is taking over. The more senior you are, the more your time is no longer in your hands, and even the most empathetic personal assistants will eventually make you work like a worker in a huge factory in China and try to maximize because there is nothing to do – they need you here and there and here and there.
Creativity and strategy require attention, silence, rising above the noise, above the grinding machine. It is only in these moments of grace that I see the people, after they have taken off their helmets, helmets, kitbags, uniforms and weapons. They go back to being children playing with Legos of ideas, and suddenly really start to invent great and exciting things.
I see CEOs and management in our processes, how much they need it – like air to breathe – and understand that there is a huge shortage in this space. Think what happens to dry land as soon as it receives a little rain and cold wind, how everything suddenly starts to grow.
Eran Gefen / Photo: Menachem Reiss
Bill Gates goes to a thinking week twice a year, where he reads and thinks about strategic issues facing the technology industry. Jeff Bezos usually holds “Team S” meetings outside the office, where he and company executives participate in creative thinking workshops. In one of them, by the way, AWS was born, the cloud computing activity that only last year brought in $80 billion for Amazon.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also prioritizes “thinking weeks”, in which he disconnects from his daily routine and focuses on reading, learning and looking at the big picture. Even Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, makes it a point to take long walks during the day to clear his mind and produce new ideas. He also said that he spends time each week thinking about the company’s long-term strategy.
The loss is so great that sometimes it ends in tears. A few weeks ago, during a strategy offset we did for a large company, we were sitting in a circle in the center of a huge tent, in a magical place in nature, and suddenly a senior manager just burst into tears.
I gave everyone a personal task that would occupy them for the next fifteen minutes and pulled her aside for a one-on-one conversation. “Sorry, it’s not really related,” she told me, “it’s just that your questions about the future of the organization suddenly made me notice that I didn’t have one moment of stopping and quiet, to ask the same questions, only about myself.”
That’s how I found myself isolated for two weeks
Yes, I know from experience, easy to say but hard to do. I used to have 4 closed hours of “weekly thinking” in my diary, which were always overrun by other needs until they simply became transparent. Constant summons that no one really pays attention to.
That’s why I realized that I must be even more aggressive and make a significant space for myself. This is expressed in the fact that my Sundays are clean, simply clean of meetings. The diary is empty, and in its place is thinking time. And recently I took it one step further, and even went for two weeks of seclusion.
It sounds privileged and it really is, but I remember thinking about it at first and it sounded impossible to me. A crazy “what if” moment. It’s not something people can do.
So it turns out that this fantasy is possible, and you know what? She brought many more moments and thoughts of “what if”, in all areas: in the family, with the children, in business, in creation. And what could be more important than “what if”?
It goes without saying that such a space should also have an orderly method, otherwise one type of terrator is replaced by many terrators of other types.
And it’s true that, as we already said, it’s easy to say and hard to do, but still, sometimes it’s worth just reminding myself and you. what if?
Eran Gefen is the founder of G^Team, a strategic consulting company that helps companies develop new growth engines. He has experience working with CEOs and management of the leading companies in Israel and the world, including Coca Cola, Walt, Microsoft, Strauss and Kimberly Clark. A previous company he founded was purchased by WIX. Geffen runs the podcast “Half an hour of inspiration” and is the author of the book “Creating Growth” – This is how business creativity is turned into a work plan.”