Would you swap your staff?
Like most businesses, here at SM1 Print Studio, we are highly protective of our clients, our supplier agreements and of course our wonderful staff. Whilst we are always open to new ideas and creative solutions, something I saw recently makes me think that perhaps we have been a little too “Willy Wonka” in our approach (hopefully not lost on everyone.)
Whilst the recent Dyson incident only served to reinforced my somewhat guarded attitude, my faith that most of us in business strive for a competitive advantage through fair means not foul, was restored by a project I came across last month.
Creative Swap www.creativeswap.co was an imaginative initiative aimed at creative agencies similar to ours, to actively encourage the sharing of ideas and best practice. For a week, one member of staff from one creative agency would quite literally swap places with another from a different business. The idea was to connect, talk more openly, share ideas, processes, inspiration, knowledge and experience…and nothing to do with Noel Edmonds or Keith Chegwin.
The introduction of change into any process inevitably promotes re-evaluation of that task or action and almost certainly improves efficiency and fresh thinking. We actively encourage the whole team here to do just that in whatever we do each day. This in turn (hopefully) helps
us provide an objective but questioning approach to our clients work.
So, if anyone out there is keen to join in with us for our own Creative Swap –we think it would be a highly valuable exercise. Are you up for the challenge?
….update: No John in Croydon, we won’t swap Steve Hall our General Manager for a socket set and a bag of Haribos!