As an “architect of message,” communications pro Christopher Bennett’s creativity has been a key driver in a career that has included being interim leader of the BC Green Party, senior adviser to TED Vancouver and now director of corporate communications at Best Buy Canada.
But he said it was while going through a “flat” patch a couple years ago that he came to a key realization about how to keep his ideas flowing.
“I was in a place where I felt I was just going through the routines,” he said. “I wanted to really push myself to a different point – not necessarily a higher level in terms of a job title or any type of distinction, but to a place where I was really looking at things in an intelligent, cerebral way, and I wasn’t just numb to the way they always look.”
Bennett said it was in that state that an idea began to percolate: that he needed to look outside his industry for inspiration.
“You can stay very focused within [your] industry or [ask], ‘What can I learn from the captain of a battleship? What can I learn from the pitching coach of the Vancouver Canadians? What can I learn from the gardener down the road who has just an exceptional crop of tomatoes that nobody else on the block has, and he’s doing it so much better?’”
Bennett said the approach has also led him, inspired by baseball legend Shawn Green, to pursue boxing rather than a standard health regime to combat work stress.
“For me, the footwork of boxing has been astronomically effective in focusing and pulling out distractions versus just running or working out or joining a team sport, which we think intuitively is going to have great results.”
Bennett was also inspired to shake up his working hours in pursuit of better work-life balance.
“When I started exploring the hours that I sleep and work, and trying to modify that – holy cow, did I start just to realize that there’s always a third way,” he said, explaining that he’ll sometimes start his work “day” at 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. so he can be home by early afternoon to spend more time with his family.
On reinvention: “You can continue to practise and strike toward being an outlier and get your 10,000 hours in an industry or you can look at what are the possibilities to innovate, to reinvent your industry and do something meaningful – in that it is more effective or helps you push the company that you’re working for – the brand, the products, the people that you represent – in a stronger direction.”
