Holiday? What holiday? Refocusing on work after a spell in the sun

Holiday? What holiday?

Holidays are heaven – it doesn’t matter if it’s Lake Como or a day-trip to the beach in Norfolk, holidays are therapeutic and bring peace and clarity to most of us. It’s about getting away from the everyday. This applies to relationships and life – and it definitely applies to work.

Even if you only got back from a summer break last week, it probably already feels like a lifetime ago. If you’re like me, you love most things about your work, but there’s just a bit too much of it sometimes. So those resolutions you made while you were away about a new hobby, ways to work differently, those great insights that dawned on you as you watched the sun set… they run the risk of being drowned. Drowned in the everyday stress, that thing that went wrong this morning and those 327 unread emails.

Capture those beach insights

If it’s dragging you down a bit, you aren’t alone. “Post-holiday blues” are a real thing, and it’s pretty obvious why they happen. But what I want to focus on is more valuable than that: what about those great insights you had? These are precious, because few people know your business and your customers better than you. And you’re probably in a position to make a difference, so how can you recapture them, and more importantly move to action – start doing stuff differently. And while you’re at it, what could you stop doing? If only your leadership team had been there on that beach with you, in work mode, to move things forward…

One way to capture insights, get everyone focused and in the right mode is a workshop. This is a popular time of year to do them. Over the last ten years, KISS has run workshops for businesses ranging from start-ups to multinational market leaders and across areas like life sciences, education, professional services, healthcare, technology and consumer goods. We’re happy to sit with you and design one to suit.

Brand articulation workshops

Our most popular workshops are half-day to single-day sessions on what we call brand articulation – giving your brand a focus and drawing out a specific personality, the real beating heart of your brand and your marketing strategy. Digital strategy and messaging are also popular – again sorting out what the focus is, the deliverables, what will you do more of – and, often, what you can stop doing. It’s a block of time in busy diaries but a workshop is a shortcut through what can be an overly complex and drawn-out process.

We get all the key stakeholders together in a room and help you define a roadmap for success. And as part of this you get something else very useful – an outsider’s perspective, from a mixed team that can include senior strategists and marketers – people who cut their teeth on some of the world’s biggest brands.

Dr Hakim Yadi OBE, Chief Executive of the Northern Health Science Alliance, told us: “KISS understood our vision from the off and developed branding that we're proud of.”

So as the schools start back, you can’t re-create the tan but you can re-create the clarity – and move to action! If you’d like to know more email us or give us a call.