Never too many cooks in our kitchen
Here at Brilliant Ink, we pride ourselves in being creative thinkers, and we understand that part of being creative involves trying new things. That’s the whole premise behind our Test Kitchen.
Once a quarter, we set aside four hours to cook up new ideas to make work more enjoyable. You may be thinking, “Well, that could mean anything!” And yes, in some sense, it can…and does. But sometimes, even creativity can use a few parameters, which is why every Brilliant Ink cook-off has a central theme, or “secret ingredient,” if you will. These themes range from tapping new technologies to creating better methods for information-sharing.
At the end of every cook-off, each employee gets to pitch his or her best idea to the group and collectively, the group chooses one idea to test over the next quarter, and possibly beyond. While it may sound like an episode of Top Chef, our Test Kitchen serves two very important purposes:
- It forces us to venture outside of our comfort zones to think of new ways to solve common workplace challenges.
- It gives us a safety net to try new ideas that might not be quite ready to share with the world, but have great potential.
In Q1, the team was challenged to come up with new ways to express gratitude at work. The “winning” idea was to create personal and team gratitude journals to encourage us all to be consciously grateful for our blessings, each and every day. Take a look at our BinkPositive Tumblr to see what team Brilliant Ink is thankful for.
For Q2, the theme was “inspiring mindfulness at work.” Ideas ranged from taking outdoor adventures to finding inner peace through meditation. It was a tough decision but after a team vote, our next Test Kitchen idea is…drumroll…the Brilliant Reading Club! Every month, one member of our team will be responsible for sharing thought-provoking content (e.g., news article, video, excerpt from a book) with the team that relates to our work in some way. We’ll have a week to review and internalize the content before coming together for an hour-long presentation and discussion. The goal is to come up with one CTA (call to action) each month to help us be more productive, effective and mindful at work.
Stay tuned for updates!
