When going outside, it’s easy to walk with your head down. Avoid people, watch the sidewalk, dodge traffic, check your phone.

Lately, I’ve been working on strengthening my back after an old injury. A good part of that is retraining myself to walk with a straighter posture. It entails three main things:

• Tighten your core
• Bring your shoulder blades together.
• Act as if there’s a headrest behind your head and place the back of your head against it.

It can feel silly, but once I started doing that, I watched the sidewalk much less. I’m still noticing where I’m walking, but I see more people’s faces, buildings and storefronts, and admire the outline of different parts of the city against the sky. My gaze, and in turn, my thoughts are going to bigger things. I have more appreciation for where I live, and more excitement to visit places I never noticed. The best part? My back has been feeling a lot better.

There’s a similar need in the workplace.

It’s easy to get so bogged down in the small, mundane tasks. Many of those tasks are important for your work; but if we’re not intentional, we begin to lose sight of the bigger picture. Things like meaning, purpose, and possibilities become much clearer when you learn to look up and ahead regularly. The way you work shifts, and what you work on is more aligned with where you’re hoping to go.

If you read last week’s update, you know that’s where we hope to help over the next 18 months. To support teams and companies around the globe in seeing possibilities, learning how to work differently, and not just walking, but taking leaps forward.

Next, can you help us share this work?

Today, one of our presentations on this topic is currently “up for vote” at an event called South by Southwest (SXSW), one of the biggest conferences in the country, and we need your help. We need as many people as possible to vote on our presentation here: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/v.... You’ll need to make a free account to both vote and comment. If you have a few minutes today, it would be awesome to have your vote and to share a note at the bottom of the page. More instructions below.

For now, I hope you take a moment today to go for a walk, straighten your back, and look up. See what you notice. And then come back and do the same with your job, company, and industry.

VOTE FOR OUR PANELPICKER HERE

Instructions for voting:

1. Visit our SXSW PanelPicker profile: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/140298
2. Create an account or sign in (take 20seconds tops!)
3. Click the UP Arrow to cast your vote and leave a comment to boost visibility