History is made in tea shops

I am biased against boardrooms and conference rooms. They are cold, uncomfortable, and make me want to run away.

Some productivity experts think it’s a good thing. Because meetings are mostly a waste of time, and should be made as uncomfortable as possible, so that everyone sticks to the point and wants to get back to work as soon as possible.

Well, that’s a good argument I would say.

But I have seen the best and most important meetings held OUT of conference rooms. A vast majority of business meetings are held in cafes, coffee shops and tea shops.

The USA was founded after a series of “tea parties” like Boston Tea Party and Philadelphia Tea Party.

Admittedly, they weren’t the kind of “parties” that we are talking about here. But their resentment was with the British, not with the tea. In fact, they didn’t like the fact that the British had monopoly over their tea. So I think it’s safe to say the founding fathers had a pretty solid relationship with tea.

Dastaan World was also founded in a tea shop meeting between three of the greatest minds living today.

And I still prefer to spend most of my working hours in an environment that allows me to get up and take a walk in fresh air and sun whenever I want. That usually means ground floor facilities like libraries and, you guessed it, tea or coffee shops.

I have never seen a steady supply of caffeine hurt anyone’s productivity. And I think, tea shops have witnessed the most creative conversations, improvisations and ideations in history.

And that is why, capitalizing on my walking habit and borrowing a page from Steve Jobs, I am now switching more and more of my “meetings” from conference tables, or even coffee tables, to walks. Mostly it’s combination of sitting for tea and getting up for a walk. Especially for longer meetings, discussions and consultations.

I am increasingly experimenting with this “new” mode of consulting with my clients. And it’s not just a walk, but several other factors engineered around it to create the most breakthrough ideas possible for them.

Give it a shot in your own work and meetings while I formalize and flesh out my process a bit more. I will bring it out in public soon enough.

Cheers and lots of love,

Shakaib Feroz.

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