After watching Nilofer Merchant’s TEDTalk we immediately stood up. Of the many facts she presents about the sedentary state of the modern workforce, this one caught our attention:

The average office worker spends 9.3 hours a day parked in a chair.

That’s more than half of the time we are awake.

Many people spend their day plugged into a computer, cordoned off by office and cubical walls, emailing people within walking distance. This isn’t just unhealthy; it’s unproductive.

Getting on your feet – whether for a 30-minute meeting or to cross the office – not only combats the health and wellness repercussions of staying seated, it proactively creates opportunities for increased collaboration and communication. Key word: proactive.

The eureka moments that propel successful businesses don’t happen by accident. And they certainly don’t happen by staring at a screen all day. They come from throwing around half-thoughts and hypotheticals until they begin to take form. They come from casual conversation, spontaneous brainstorming, and decided action.

One of the most frequent comments we hear from our customers is how easy it is to leave their solitary pods when there’s something appealing, like a group think or a change of scenery, waiting for them. So get up and make it happen. After all, you can’t move the ball down the field if you are sitting on the bench.

How are you breaking in your new digs? Borrow a page from Glow’s book and send us a hello via Twitter.

Office tour videos are some of our favorites. Mediabistro‘s Cubes lets us sit in on one given by Huge Partner, Michal Pasternak. We love the indoor bike racks, open workspace, YES mentality, and their beer o’clock camraderie.

Fun fact: the first cardboard box was invented in the same space. Very cool.

Too often the reason why we do things at work is because, “this is how we’ve always done it”.

Sound familiar?

But just because a task has always been done one way, does not mean it’s the best or most efficient. Sometimes we need to shake off the cobwebs and reconsider the processes that keep business moving forward.

In fact, our company grew from this idea. We were born out of a frustration with the way ideas were explored and shared.

After all, why do this?

When you can do this?

New technologies are constantly emerging that make work easier, more environmentally conscious and more fun. Even the simplest of tasks should be constantly assessed and improved.

Here are four great places to assess:

1. How are meetings scheduled and run?

Our tip: Use Join.Me or GoToMeeting. With employees working remotely and traveling around the world, it is imperative to stay connected and share content.

2. How are selling activities organized and activated?

Our tip: Salesforce. Consolidate all potential and current customer information in one place, set up tasks, workflows and automated emails. Make the system work for you and find more time to focus on selling.

3. How are goals identified, tracked, prioritized and executed?

Our tip: Basecamp. Keep track of timelines and to-dos with an entire group, anywhere and at anytime.

4. How can your global team ensure key information is easily accessible?

Our tip: Dropbox or an internal blog. Ideally all internal data and materials should be within a click’s reach to anyone on your team. That goes for your company’s paid holiday schedule or a sales brochure in Spanish.

When you identify a change that could improve the way others work, involve all who can be impacted by the change and work together to update the process. Make a breakthrough? Leave a comment here so we can all learn from each other. Soon we’ll all be looking back and laughing at how we “used to do it”!

Part A and Part B don’t have the same ring as This and That, right?

During our recent visit to MassChallenge we met with Vsnap, an innovative company that is changing the way people communicate. Their simple web and mobile platform allows users to create 60 second video messages with attachments and send them via email and social media. By adding a personal touch to every day communications, they’re reintroducing the human element to many businesses. Instead of B2B or B2C, they’re all about H2H: human to human.

Trish Fontanilla, Vsnap’s VP of Community & Customer Experience, told us their H2H philosophy began when CEO Dave McLaughlin wanted to communicate with relatives abroad and wanted to do more than communicate via text. Familial, fun and refreshing, his short form videos were a hit. Dave thought, why not extend similar capabilities to businesses? Not only would they provide an easy way to connect with people in different places, but they’d also offer an appealing alternative – with a demonstrable ROI – to standard communications between companies and their customers.

Here’s just one of hundreds of examples:

Way better than an email, right?

At a time of outsourcing and automated responses, impressive open rates and click through rates are hard to come by. Inboxes are frequently bogged down and recipients are way more than likely to click delete than hear you out. Part of Vsnap’s gospel is that this is not the case when video is concerned. To start, according to an Experian study, video content is on pace to account for close to half of all web traffic by 2014. Let that sink in. When bundled in an email, it drives an average 21% higher conversion rate, and a 24% higher average order value when compared to emails that rely solely on static images. Plus, the personal touch helps build customer loyalty and evangelism, which increases the probability of repeat customers. Whether you’re sending an invite, eBook or crowdsourcing your community for feedback, video can deliver. Especially if you get creative.

Yup, that’s IdeaPaint.

In her new role as VP of Community & Customer Experience, a hybrid, jack of all trades job that values relationships and rapport, Trish has made over 6,000 Vsnaps. Tweet to @vsnap to watch the magic happen or try Vsnap here. Soon you’ll be communicating more like friends with your customers and less like a capital ‘B’ Business. Just remember, an A in analytics start with a commitment to H2H.

Guest Post by Reid Ruberti

Every so often a customer uses IdeaPaint to create a space that perfectly captures the spirit of our company’s vision. Collaboratory 4.0 is such a customer. Led by founder Kit Maloney, Collaboratory 4.0 is a co-working and start-up incubator in Boston’s South End. After spending time in co-working spaces that didn’t do much to inspire her productivity, Kit set out to change the status quo. Not solely with regards to collaborative space, but also to those using it. To help address the fact that only 7-10% of the start-up community’s executives or founders are women, Collaboratory 4.0 launched in October 2012 as the first incubator in Boston that caters primarily to female entrepreneurs.

Pre-makeover at Collaboratory 4.0

A full believer in “the tide lifts all ships,” Kit knew that IdeaPaint would augment the positive and collaborative energy of Collaboratory 4.0’s unique mezzanine space at 40 Berkeley Street. It would also convert the huge columns into places to share work and work together. Leaving no surface unpainted, Kit and team took to every corner (including radiators) with IdeaPaint. It is within arm’s reach almost anywhere you stand or sit.

Kit told us that the ability to dig in on any topic, anywhere and at any time is especially valuable at Collaboratory 4.0 because it sees so much foot traffic. Every Wednesday they host a Brown Bag Lunch Series that invites business experts and aspiring entrepreneurs to share stories, experiences and ideas with the in-house team. “Brainstorming is often credited for producing the ideas that lead to business growth through a series of pivots that might not have been considered without ’blue sky’ open thinking,” she told us. “At Collaboratory 4.0 we have noticed that good brainstorming sessions are so much easier when you can write anywhere!” With IdeaPaint as their canvas, the next, great Boston start-up success story could already be on the walls.

We asked if they could show us just how they work and presented them with a simple question: How does an idea grow? Take a look at what they came up with:

You can attribute (in part) the rise of infographics, video (think Vsnap) and Ink Factory’s popularity to the fact that an estimated 2/3s of the population are visual learners. Research has found that when information is presented visually as opposed to just orally, retention and recall days later is 5x greater. That’s because we are hard wired to look for signals. Think of our hunter-gatherer predecessors. In order to survive, they needed to see what to pounce on. While some stats, stories and selling points are more appealing than others, the same goes for information-hungry audiences today.

Companies have been quick to adapt. Fast Company, Whole Foods, Target, VW, Accenture, and Ogilvy and are a few of many who have called on Ink Factory for their pictorial prowess. Ditto for crowd-drawing conferences like Chicago Ideas Week. Here’s what one of hundreds of sessions boils down to:

Imagine taking notes instead. Ouch.

The writing’s on the wall. When you’re sharing information, think more like Ink. 

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How do you think ideas grow? Leave your answer in the comments below. To learn more about Ink Factory, check out their site or follow them on Twitter. They recently moved into a very cool, new space.

What is it about coffee shops that makes us want to sit down and spend the day? In addition to delicious coffee and confections, they strike a rare balance when it comes to sound. After extensive and published research on the effects of ambient noise on creative cognition, the creative folks at Coffitivity have created a portable, online experience for those who crave the caffeinated ambience.

We’ve been tuned in for a few days now. Let us know if their looping audio track keeps you on task, too!

Hat tip to @pinta1idea for this one! Have a cool online productivity tool you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comments or send us a tweet!

Guest post by Amanda Schneider, LEED AP ID+C

The physical workplace is no longer where we go to work. It’s where we go to work together. Ironically, as technology has “untethered” us from the physical office, it has put even more pressure on that physical workplace to perform when we come together. CEOs like Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer have enacted new policies to ensure face-to-face collaboration. Just a couple weeks ago she announced that employees would no longer have the option of consistently working from home. While Mayer’s is one of many different managerial approaches to workplace chance, it points to the ongoing discussion about how the physical workplace needs to adapt.

The baseline assumption is that if one can save time by getting the same task done at home, faster, without interruptions and do well be the environment by not commuting, why go into work? The answer is to collaborate, interact and share ideas. Mayer put it simply when answering questions about her controversial decision, “While employees are more productive at home, they are more creative in the office.” Whether you agree or disagree with her decision, it’s clear that finding new ways to help the physical office space better support creativity and collaboration is necessary.

Recent history proves that workplaces have indeed adapted alongside technology. A decade ago, office space distribution was divided 80/20 with 80% dedicated to individual work areas and 20% dedicated to meeting rooms. Now, forward thinking companies are nearing a 60/40 split, with 60% of square footage allocated to group space. (For a full discussion of the numbers, take a look here.) This reflects, above all, adaptation with regards to physical size. As products have become smaller and smarter, we no longer need to provide space for monitors or processors. Instead, we can use that space to experiment with new types of collaborative areas. New workspaces like café’s, welcoming lobby areas, brainstorming spaces and small private “phone booths” are gaining popularity because they allow variety and choice when it comes to collaborative work within the office.

Emerging “third spaces” allow similar collaborative work to happen outside the office, as well. Apps like Liquidspace and NextSpace help mobile workers find a place to touch down for the day. The same goes for coworking spaces like HUB and 1871, which provide entrepreneurs, offsite employees, and small businesses with shared physical space to ground their ideas. (In case you missed it, we love coworking.) All of these solutions respond to the underlying human need for face-to-face connection – that, despite its best efforts, technology can’t completely satisfy.

IdeaPaint is a communication tool that puts face-to-face collaboration first. A single coat will change the way you work.