Just had a great couple of days - met loads of people - asked lots of bizarre questions and got some bizarre answers that helped me to think new things.

Let me explain...

Over twenty two years i have been building a company (A4e) that has a sole purpose to Improve people's lives. It is very unique and a strange beast - peopled with extraordinary people. As it gets bigger and bigger (probably 4000 people by the end of this year)  - i have this dreaded fear that the imagination and creativity that created the company will get absorbed by the need for systems, consultation and processes. Don't get me wrong - i absolutely value all the wonderful structure and systems that give us our building blocks - our stability. Crikey - don't think i could hack the ol' shifting sands of the small start up companies anymore. ( Oooh - that's an admission!!!)

However - that does not make up for my burning conviction that the company needs to be led by passion and new thinking.  So, how to get all the wonderful people to stop doing their day jobs for a couple of hours, grab hold of their passion! and think anew.

When we were small this sort of thing used to happen on the run  - now we need to make sure it happens (people all over the world). Simple really - held a What Next? meeting - no agenda - no formulae - no nothing. Plenty of coffee and biscuits and a mix of people who don't always meet.

I asked everyone to come up with a What IF? question. e.g. what if we had to cut our carbon footprint by half, what if there was only us left to run the whole company!, What if the Government did not pay benefits? etc etc.

Out of this people began to create whole new scenarios - some mad (namely the Ferrets - thanks Rob). Some absolute genius. Out of this two hour meeting came the following...

A4e will ask all customers to rate us with ebay style 1 to 5 stars (the gov announced this 12 hours later - which slightly freaked us out - either we are only twleve hours ahead of them with our ideas (poor showing) or we have not swept for bugs recently!) 

A concept of Restorative Benefits! Imagine if as individuals you offer to support and find work for several people - and in return you pay less tax! ( We are working this one up into a proper proposal)

The remaining ten people in the room all said that we would carry on with our vision to improve people's lives - but with only ten or so people to make an impact - we realised that we would have to do things differently. That is where the idea to build a world wide network of millions of life coaches with the skills and motivation to support people who are at a disadvantage.

There was more of course - but these three are massive and a top result from two hours madness (and laughs).

And remember the best bit - when I walked outside the door - all of A4e was still there - and there were amazing people who will put the ideas into action and people who can make sure that we are stable and strong while doing it.  

So, lessons learnt - the only thing that can stop me from imagining and dreaming the new things, the new ways is me - all i had to do was get a bunch of  people together - ask them bizarre questions and Bingo... 

I will be holding more sessions - I am interested in people from outside A4e joining in too.

Let me know if you want to come to a session

Emma (buzzing)