Friday 1 May 2009

Get out of the office and be inspired

This isn’t particularly pertaining to software testing, but I thought I’d blog about it anyway. Yesterday I went down to London and spent the day at two schools, one primary, on secondary, in one of the more deprived parts of London. Working at an Education company it’s important that the employees who work here take the time to visit schools, our customers, and build an empathy for our end users, something which can be quite difficult when you develop and test market products.

The day in itself was absolutely fascinating. Schools have moved on dramatically since I were there (not that long ago) and it’s great to see students using web-based products to collaborate on assignments with students of other schools around the region, country, or world.

It’s been far to long since I’ve been to a school, probably a couple of years, long enough, but it was an inspiring day and I’ve come back to the office enthused about what we do as a company and how I can play my part in ensuring we meet the demands of our customers.

Similarly, I’ve felt the same when returning from something like SIGIST, or Eurostar. That time away from the office allows you to regain perspective, to think new thoughts, and to be inspired.

So, to my point! Getting out of the office to meet customers, go on a training course or attend work-related conferences is a great way to inspire and energise your self. We can all become tired, or bogged down in our day-to-day work and responsibilities and it’s important to know you don’t always need two weeks in the Maldives, however nice that’d be, to re-charge your batteries!

1 comment:

Michael Bolton http://www.developsense.com said...

I like lunching with testers from other companies. Sometimes we talk about work-stuff, and sometimes we talk about other things we're interested in. Either way, it rarely fails to inspire.

---Michael B.