The Hindu Business Line : Creativity unlimited

FOR Catalyst, it's a column come alive. The setting, the scene, the atmosphere, the brainstorming, is familiar through Idea Break's writer, creativity consultant R. Sridhar, who through his outfit, Ideas-RS, conducts workshops for corporate personnel to bust mental blocks.

The tools of his trade - words and more words on stacks of cards, play dough, charts, bubbles, games, Post-It notes, OHP sheets. The setting: a shimmering beach resort in Mamallapuram near Chennai, dress code: informal, scene: the workshop's participants playing with the various games set up in the hall, participants: travel company RCI, agenda: to come up with solutions for a challenge set by an NGO, which is also Sridhar's way of doing pro bono work for worthy causes.

Sridhar starts off by asking the participants to quickly fashion something out of the clay he has supplied. The results are put on a table and everybody asked to explain why they chose that shape. There is a leaf (because that participant wanted to turn over a new leaf during the workshop), a lamp, a flower, a question mark (because the participant wondered why she was there!) - Sridhar says that is to illustrate how, given the same raw material, every single person came out with a different creation. "This is the biggest benefit of collective brain power. I wanted people to bring to the table their own rich experience, knowledge, expertise and views," explains Sridhar.

Then, goals, immediate and long-term, are taken into account. These include breaking out of the mindset, accepting that there is more than one right answer, developing alternative and simpler ways of identifying and solving challenges, sharpening negotiating skills, thinking out of the box and improving problem-solving skills. Sridhar exhorts the participants not to be "idea assassins". A non-judgemental atmosphere would help foster a creative climate, so his wards are advised to listen, encourage and support.

Now comes the challenge of the day - solving a problem for an NGO. Chennai-based organisation Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy (CIOSA), which is bringing together NGOs, corporate houses and individuals, wanted to know how it could enrol more corporates as paid members; specifically, 100 members in 12 months. "Although we have been successful in building up a substantial NGO membership (85 at present), we had difficulty in convincing corporate houses, which was beginning to affect CIOSA's effectiveness in addressing the needs of its NGO members," says R. Karthik Venkatesh, Executive Director, CIOSA.

The participants are taken through a series of exercises to understand the problem and arrive at a clearly articulated challenge - they are told to restate the problem in as many ways as they can on Post-Its, which are displayed on charts in the conference room. Venkatesh is also grilled on his choices and actions, past and present, by the participants who draw questions at random from a kit supplied by Sridhar. The kit also has a booklet called Idea Spark, which contains verbs. Sridhar says using verbs and the questions Who, Why, What, Where, When and How is a tactic to come up with ideas. He also instructs the participants to use random cues from another stack of cards to find solutions for CIOSA. This is the really fun part where participants are made to put down a few thoughts/experiences related to the phrase on the cards and read it out to the rest - it resulted in instant rhymes, fantasy and humorous real-life experiences being shared, but the point is to see if there is anything in these that even remotely triggers off a solution to the challenge. Participants are also asked to pick an object from the Ignition Pack in the kit - a flower, a little bell, a tassel, - put themselves in its shoes and imagine what kind of advice it would proffer on this subject.

Post-lunch, Sridhar leads the workshop through Rebus, a word game which serves as a wake-up activity and stretches the mind to make creative leaps and interesting connections. This way, about 275 ideas, staid, predictable, unusual and wacky, are generated in about 90 minutes. The NGO is asked to group these into `tried', `thought of but not tried' and such categories. Participants are asked to pick five suggestions each, of which the NGO short-lists some. Now it's time for teamwork - one idea is taken up by each team which will have to devise a plan of action, present it with a mention of its strengths and concerns and rate itself against criteria set by the NGO. While the session's first ideas ranged from the usual to the unusual to the zany, like getting shapely models to publicise the cause, final strategies that evolved included getting hotshot CEOs to spend a day with the underprivileged and using FM radio to publicise CIOSA.

Mind-mapping is a technique used to refine and develop these ideas. The Post-It with the idea is stuck on a chart, and any manner in which it can be executed is written on the chart, from which emerges a plan of action. The NGO is also asked to present its views.

The entire session is motivational as Sridhar keeps distributing small prizes and encourages participants to be as relaxed as they can, which resulted in a constant flow of bubbles!

Says Radhika Shastry, General Manager (India Operations), RCI India Pvt Ltd, "I think I came back from the workshop with life skills. The techniques that we learnt can be used to come up with creative and fulfilling ideas to handle your spouse, colleague, child or just about any issue on hand." CIOSA's Venkatesh says, "I was sceptical about the workshop but am glad that I finally attended. At the end of the day, I walked out with completely unique project ideas thought out by the participants."

Sridhar says the workshop helps bring out individual and team capabilities. When an NGO is involved, it also helps that the challenge-setter is different from the driver of the process. Apart from guiding the corporate to find answers to its own problems, Sridhar says that "when we work on someone else's business challenge where we have no real stakes/risks, our mind is free and comes out with amazing stuff."

According to him, presentation accounts for a large part of the victory. "Sometimes the idea is put forth in such a wimpy way (`I've an idea but I don't know how good it is'), the battle is lost there. And if you are not convinced about it, or are not willing to put your neck on the block for your own idea, why should the other person?"

The objective of these sessions is to use creativity in business and employ these techniques in the daily routine. "An idea is a prescription for action. It changes people, places and situations," says Sridhar.

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