Today I learned (or maybe remembered) a truly critical element to being successful in business (and everywhere) – communication!

I’m not talking about formal communication or a communication plan or any other type of structured meetings, emails, newsbreaks, etc.  Those are all very important. But today I remembered about just plain ole’ pick up the phone, stop by the office, go out for a drink catching up with your co-worker communication.

I had about nine of these conversations with folks over the last two days and admittedly got very little “real” work done.  As you can imagine for someone whose work week is 32 hours, this could be a problem.  But alas, I am not freaking out (well maybe tomorrow when I have seven of those structured communications (aka meetings) and still have the to-do list.

And yet, I know that the “work” I did through connecting these last two days was more valuable than anything else I had on my very long to-do list.

These discussions were not structured and they had no purpose except to connect on a personal level (how’s the kids?) and catch up on work related topics. Through this materialized some incredible impromptu brainstorming which gave birth to so many epiphanies that I can’t figure out what I want to get started on first!

I am invigorated, passionate and I think the folks I talked to probably feel the same.

Lesson of the day: stopping to chat for a few moments or picking up the phone for an unplanned, no agenda discussion is an important, no an essential – element of being successful in business.