Years ago I learned an important lesson from Bart Wendell, CEO coach. At the time, I tended to stay in the office and fill most of my day with ad-hoc meetings and a list of tasks that grew and shrank, but was never fully completed. I was busy and felt productive, but Bart helped me understand that I was missing something important – informal, external communication. No purpose, no agenda, just time spent doing something unstructured outside of the office. Bart said that by spending time on informal, external communication, good CEOs often get their best strategic insights.

For the past few years, the moderator of my CEO group (Melissa Raffoni) has incorporated more informal time into our annual retreat.  This year, we went surfing. I had a blast, because it was new to me, it was a challenge, and with good instruction it was easier than I had expected. I actually managed to stand up for a few seconds a couple of times.

The bottom line, though, is that I spent the afternoon with some smart executives out of our typical environment, which enhanced our subsequent conversations about business.