Tips from Idea-Hunters: No Eating in Your Office

This one is very difficult for me, as I am an inveterate office-diner... eating nearly every lunch in the confines of my own small domain. Yet, as a New York Times interview the other day with F. Mark Gumz, the President & CEO of Olympus North America pointed out, this is a really bad idea. What Mr. Gumz said was: I don’t allow people to eat their lunch at their desk. You have to go to the cafe. I want you to take a break and talk to other people in the company. It’ll be the rule as long as I’m the C.E.O."

For me this is interesting because it's a very simple, but very effective, way to get people out of their offices to talk to one another. Who knows what sorts of ideas they might run into, even if their not experienced hunters? Today I'm going to eat with others!