The Value of Getting Outside Your Bubble
When I was early in my career, I took an assessment that promised to help identify my strengths, motivations, and interests. As a fan of most assessments like this, I wondered what it would say – what core part of my make-up it might illuminate to help me better understand myself.
As I flipped through the report, my attention was naturally drawn towards a section labeled “interests.” Intrigued, I read on.
My top interests, according to the report, were:
Literary – appreciation for language (92%)
Administrative – systems, order, and reliability (88%)
Artistic – creation, appreciation for arts, aesthetics (78%)
Numerical - working with numbers and data (72%)
Those all made sense. As I looked down the list to the very bottom of my apparent “interests,” I had a chuckle.
Outdoor - work in an outdoor environment (5%)
Ouch!
I didn’t know whether to laugh or be mildly offended. I had moved to the Pacific Northwest a few years earlier - didn’t everyone in the northwest love being outdoors? I grew up camping and generally considered myself someone who appreciated the great outdoors.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was right as an assessment of potential careers. I like enjoying the outdoors on a nice summer day, or on vacation, but not so much as a work environment!
Today’s post is not about the outdoors, but it is about getting outside:
Getting outside your organization
Getting outside yourself,
Getting outside your niche,
Getting outside your normal circles, and yes,
Getting outside your environment.
The Value of Getting Outside
This past week, I hosted one event and attended another, and was reminded of the inspiration, ideas, and connections that come from “getting outside.”
First, I hosted a one-day experience that we call an “Imago Day” – a memorable one-day experience where leaders learn and connect with each other and with experts and thought leaders. It's a day filled with learning, inspiration, creativity, and innovation.
We gathered in Franklin, Tennessee, hosted by charity: water’s Experience Lab, an immersive storytelling exhibit about “humanity’s search for water.”
Above: Special guest Nathan Chappell, co-author of The Generosity Crisis and Nonprofit AI: Artificial Intelligence for Social Good, leads a conversation on the intersection of generosity and artificial intelligence.
The Lab provided an inspiring setting for our time, but, as much as anything, Imago Day is about connection – connecting with other leaders more deeply and with new ideas and different approaches.
💡 Takeaway: Experiences like Imago Day have the power to inspire us and challenge us to think differently, to connect more deeply, and to be inspired by getting outside our usual settings and usual relationships.
We went on from Imago Day to NRB, a gathering of nearly 6,000 faith-based communicators and media nonprofits.
Hosted in the beautiful Gaylord Opryland – one of the biggest hotels I’ve ever seen with massive atriums, bridges, waterfalls, and boat rides, it’s a setting designed to get you out of your normal headspace.
The first day, I was honored to attend an awards ceremony where the Sustainable Giving Podcast was nominated for and received the Best Original Podcast award – a huge honor I was honored to accept for our entire team.
Then we were on to a panel discussion on Digital Fundraising trends, and a talk on the workshop stage on the “7 Steps to Growing Recurring Giving in the Subscription Economy.”
Above: Getting outside our typical spaces and connecting with other leaders in an inspiring environment leads to creativity, breakthroughs, and connection.
The highlight for me at any of these events is getting outside my normal bubble, meeting leaders I wouldn’t have otherwise met, being in a unique location that inspires creative thinking, and being exposed to ideas I might not have otherwise had.
Let’s look at the benefits of getting outside.
Benefits of Getting Outside
When I step back and reflect, I see three major benefits from getting outside my normal settings and attending events like this.
Benefit #1
Exposure to Ideas
Getting outside your normal environment inevitably exposes you to new ideas and insights. And the more different the environment, the more varied the ideas you’ll be exposed to. That’s one reason I advocate for leaders to attend conferences outside their immediate sector.
If you are a relief and development charity, for example, there is nothing wrong with going to the relief and development charity conference. But also go to nonprofit conferences that are much broader – you might be surprised at how much you pick up.
When you enter settings that are not your own, you open up a sense of greater possibility. Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, popularized the idea of the adjacent possible, suggesting that innovation occurs by combining existing, accessible resources in new ways, rather than taking impossible, giant leaps.
Benefit #2
New Relationships Lead to Breakthroughs
Part of getting outside your normal setting is the power of new relationships that are outside your typical circles. You not only meet new people with new ideas and experiences, but you can also draw on those relationships to think differently.
The concept of weak ties, popularized by Stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter in the 1970s, he summed it up well – “Your weak ties connect you to networks that are outside of your own circle. They give you information and ideas that you otherwise would not have gotten.”
Attending events outside your normal settings is a great way to strengthen weak ties and make connections that lead to innovation.
Benefit #3
Experiences Fuel Imagination
A change of environment can fuel the imagination in ways that spark thinking that wouldn’t otherwise happen. The more inspirational and thought-provoking the experience, the more powerful the fuel.
I’ve hosted groups of leaders on behind-the-scenes tours with Disney Imagineers, to themed experiences in the Philippines, to markets in Indonesia, to the cliffs of Malibu. Each setting has its own contribution to inspiring and thinking differently.
💡 Takeaway: Breakthrough thinking rarely happens by staying in the same rooms, with the same people, having the same conversations. When you intentionally get outside your environment, your niche, your organization, your usual circles—you expand the edges of what feels possible. New settings spark new questions. New relationships surface new ideas. And new experiences unlock imagination that routine simply can’t.
Cultivating an outside mindset isn’t accidental – it’s intentional. It’s a commitment to step beyond the familiar so that fresh combinations, unexpected insights, and creative breakthroughs have space to emerge.
If you want different results, you have to expose yourself to different inputs. Get in rooms that stretch you. Have conversations with people who think differently. Put yourself in environments that disrupt your patterns.
The inspiration, innovation, and connection you’re looking for may not be inside your current circle – they’re often just outside of it.
Until next week… Surf’s Up! 🌊
- Dave