Ideas flow freely at the Department for Work and Pensions

Q: What do you do need to find your way out of a cave?
A: A house brick!

This was one of the amazing solutions dreamt up on the 1-hour creativity taster session delivered by Simon Atherley of Acunity, as part of the Learning at Work day held at the Deprtament for Work and Pensions office in Leeds on 24th May.

During the session, Simon explained that creativity is no longer the exclusive domain of artists, designers, architects and the like, and that creativity plays an increasingly important role in both work activities and life in general.

The ingenious use for a house brick was dreamt up during the light-hearted session by Alison Hart of DWP, who found the session “inspiring and useful”. She observed that by powdering a house brick, it could be used to form a breadcrumb trail when exploring a cave, to help find your way out again.

The exercise was designed to encourage delegates to think outside of the box – an essential skill wherever there is a need to generate new ideas, products or services.

A 1-day creativity session is now planned for DWP, and will be delivered by Simon Atherley. Simon says “It will be highly participative and enjoyable, and we will be showing delegates not only how to generate lots of good ideas to help solve business problems, but also how to communicate these ideas effectively”

06 June 2007