Microsteps to Creative Teambuilding

Last November I conducted a workshop for one of the ASTD Atlanta Special Interest Groups on ideas for creative ways to build teams.

View the Prezi presentation here.

Harvesting Creativity through Social Media

Social media can be a creative and collaborative portal for organizations that makes it easier to gather ideas and generate innovations. Proper implementation is necessary to fully develop these tools so the business can reap the rewards. This article illustrates how to successfully integrate social media into the workforce for a creative idea harvest.

Read the rest of the article in Training Industry Quarterly...

Want to get more creative and innovative in the workplace? Growing Great Ideas: Unleashing More Creativity@Work, THE creativity training book, is now available for Kindle. 

Creativity@Work Exercise Soup Bowl

Soup Bowl

Making out-of-the-box associations and connections gives staff practice that can be applied to internal projects, products, or services.The exercise encourages thinking outside the box when facing problems needing solutions that are out of the ordinary.

Objective: To come up with creative ways to use common, everyday items.

Instructions: As a team, spend five minutes finding an interesting use for five items randomly pulled from a large soup bowl such as small toys, sticky notes, paper clips, etc. Anything that fits in the bowl is fair game. Teams will then be invited to share and illustrate alternate uses for the item with the group. The group can then vote for the funniest or most interesting uses by a team and a prize could be given.

It’s almost here! The complete, expanded second edition e-book comes out on March 1st! Download a free, 25 page preview of THE training guide to Creativity@Work, Growing Great Ideas: Unleashing More Creativity@Work, at the E-book website.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter or become a fan of my Facebook Creativity@Work page. I can also train you and your organization to be more creative and innovative at work. Email me for more information.

Creativity@Work Tool: Bubbl.us

Bubbl.us is a free, online mind mapping tool that allows you to create mind mapping and brainstorming diagrams without even a log-in required to get started. Have a great idea for a product or service. What now? How do you get it done? What steps do you need to bring this idea into reality? What’s related to this central idea? Get those ideas out of your head and into mind map.

It only took me a few moments to draw my sample mind map without ever using this tool previously as Bubbl.us is pretty intuitive to use and has familiar controls. I did create a free account so I could save this map to use again and also to be able to share with other, who can also add new bubbles of thought to the map.

Want to try it out and see what great ideas you can brainstorm? Check out the Bubbl.us website and click the start brainstorming button. On the getting help tab, there are easy to understand instructions for using this neat, interactive tool. If you try this out, send me an email and let me know how you like it and what ideas came from it.

For more, simple tutorials on using the tools within Bubbl.us click here and here.

Want more ideas to unleash Creativity@Work? For more information on how to get your copy of THE training guide to Creativity@Work, Growing Great Ideas: Unleashing More Creativity@Work, visit the E-book website. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter or become a fan of my Facebook Creativity@Work page. I can also train you and your organization to be more creative and innovative at work. Email me for more information.

Creativity@Work Exercise: Conversations with Fame

Many of us are fascinated with famous people. Sometimes we wonder what it would be like to live their lives and interact the way they do (or did). Why not use this interest to spark some new lines of thinking when facing a work challenge or anticipating a new opportunity?

Objective: To find a new perspective to view issues, opportunities, and challenges at work.

Instructions: in teams of 4-5, have each group pick a famous person, living, dead or well-known fictitious character. A person can also be supplied to each team. You can even bring in a magazine like People or US to randomly choose a person. For example, you can start out asking how would Tiger Woods, Abe Lincoln, Paris Hilton, Hugh Jackman, Joe Jonas, etc….handle this challenge (insert your opportunity or challenge here)?

Discuss within the teams how this person would:
 Solve a work-related problem?
 Market a new product or service?
 Discipline an employee?
 Make new contacts or network?
 Make a presentation or run a meeting?
 Handle a crisis?
 What would make this person handle the situation in this way? Explain?

Each team should spend 10-15 minutes discussing this and then prepare to share a short summary to share with the group.

Coming Wednesday: Creative Tool Bubbl.us mind mapping tool

Want more ideas to unleash Creativity@Work? For more information on how to get your copy of THE training guide to Creativity@Work, Growing Great Ideas: Unleashing More Creativity@Work, visit the E-book website. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter or become a fan of my Facebook Creativity@Work page. I can also train you and your organization to be more creative and innovative at work. Email me for more information.

Creativity@Work Exercise- Map Making

We are all familiar with maps. They serve as guides, help us navigate unfamiliar surroundings, and even lead us to find alternate routes. As a creative tool, mapmaking is often used as a way to find, chart, and tell both fictional stories and true life experiences. It can encourage exploratory thinking. So why not apply a simplified version of mapmaking when approaching unfamiliar topics and problems at work? Why not use it to chart the story of the organization or of a product or service? Map making can also help plan milestones, anticipate problems, and identify opportunities for an upcoming or in-process project.

Gather:
Color markers
Post-it flags
Large pieces of blank paper

Put participants in teams of 4-5, giving 1-2 hours to complete the exercise. Each team will create a map to represent a project or goal at work. Draw a small icon to represent the beginning or current point and an icon for the end point. Then start the “trip” and add lines as your team works toward the destination goal. Don’t forget to include detours, hazards, possible short cuts, alternate routes, rest stops/refueling, points of interest, and other stops along the way to the final destination. Teams will then explain how to get there from here, showing the map to illustrate.

Coming Wednesday: Creative links

Want more ideas to unleash Creativity@Work? For more information on how to get your copy of THE training guide to Creativity@Work, Growing Great Ideas: Unleashing More Creativity@Work, visit the E-book website. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter or become a fan of my Facebook Creativity@Work page. I can also train you and your organization to be more creative and innovative at work. Email me for more information.

Creativity@Work: Exercise Unleashing Creativity with a brick

How do you unleash Creativity@Work with a brick? The next time you have a planning session or a meeting and want to mix things up and get the ideas flowing, try something simple to get started. Pose this question: How many unusual uses can you come up with for a brick? We all know you can build things with bricks but what else can you do with a brick? You would be surprised at the ways this common item can be used!

Give everyone two minutes to think of as many uses as they can. You can have them shout out the answers and write them on a whiteboard or you can let them write them down and then share when time is up. The whole point is to move thinking from the ordinary to extraordinary. There are no wrong answers!

Any time you get stuck for ideas on how to improve or change a product or service? Contemplate new uses for existing products and services using the same line of thinking! ASK: What are other unusual ways can we use (insert your product or service name here)?

Coming Wednesday, Creativity@ Work: Idea Barriers

Want more ideas to unleash Creativity@ Work? For more information on how to get your copy of THE training guide to Creativity@ Work, Growing Great Ideas: Unleashing More Creativity@Work, visit the E-book website. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter or become a fan of my Creativity@ Work Facebook page.