I am currenlty involved in reorganizing a two week induction for new members of staff. We are considering the benefits of training them not just on the systems we use but also focusing on developing their interpersonal skills. One thing we are considering is the benefit of doing some lateral thinking training. Does anyone have any information on the benefit of 'mass' training of this kind. Would it be just as beneficial to focus this training on the 'problem solvers'?
Vicky Clements
5 Responses
Lateral Thinking
Vicky,
Lateral thinking and creativity should be encouraged in all staff, enabling them to look at the problem from all angles and not just accepting it at face value. It’s fun and can give positive boosts to your training – dedicated problem solvers or not
Lateral THinking
Edward De BOno’s 6 thinking hat method is brilliant for problem solving Any good bookseller will have a copy of his book TEACH YOUR CHILD HOW TO THINK. I have used the idea in customer care and team building/problem solving events
Bill
Lateral thinking empowers
Vicky, Lateral thinking (de Bono) really empowers and is a lot of fun for everyone. There are some very simple tools that have high impact. I use the tools with great success with school children and management alike. de Bono hiself also recognises the value of such tools as MindMaps. Like any training, do it badly and you get poor results. Do you currently use music as a resource as well?
Lateral Thinking and Creativity training can be really useful
Vicky
I am constantly amazed by the number of people I meet who truly believe that they are not creative and incapable of producing any useful ideas. This belief can hold such people back from fulfilling their true potential and fully contributing to the success of your company. I have run many workshops aimed at helping people to develop their lateral thinking and creativity skills. I have found that these can help individuals who believe they don’t produce any useful ideas to release some of their creativity and that the ideas they have produced following such training have benefitted their companies. You may find that following such training, some people still may not believe that their ideas are of any use. If so, you can aim to build their confidence and help them to develop more positive beliefs through coaching.
For many organisations these days the ability to innovate is essential to ensure they succeed and compete effectively, so I would suggest that such ‘mass’ training could be of great benefit. If you concentrate solely on the ‘problem solvers’ you may miss out on some great ideas from other members of staff.
If you want to chat about this further you can e-mail me at [email protected]
Go for it!
Hi Vicky,
Like the other commetators, I am amazed at the number of organisations which do not recognise (or even stifle) creative thought! I’ve just come back from running a Mind Maps® for Business seminar for a German consultant, where the participants reckoned that using coloured pens & A3 paper would not be acceptable – everything must be b&w & tightly constrained.
If your new intakes are shown either De Bono or Buzan techniques, they will only be successful IF the company culture encourages them. (But remember also, that it only needs 1% of a ‘population’ believing in something new to create a climate for change!)
Drop me an email if you would like to go further…..
Dave