There are several major businesses - known for innovation - that famously allow employees a degree of unstructured time to come up with fresh ideas and work on their own projects.

Of course, SMEs don't have the multi-billion dollar war chest of a brand like Google to free up 10-20 per cent of an employee's time. But we can all benefit from not being slaves to our job lists, even for one day.

Have you ever thought about leading such an initiative with as many people from your company as you can? Get them together for a day, take them offsite, video-conference them in from home.

Ban the job list. Take their phones, tablets and laptops away (apart from those who need them to join you!) and make them think...not just 'do'.

Of course, such a session is better with structure. Plan it around the biggest challenges facing your business, or cutting costs while becoming more technologically in tune with your competitors. Ask your workforce to come with one idea which would make their working day more productive.

Listen to them. You'll be surprised what a free mind can do.

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