Communication Strategies

The seminar can be held in a spacious function room. The participants can simply sit down on the floor for a closer interaction during the activities if they prefer to do so.  It will start off by forming groups wherein the members of each group come from the different departments.  The purpose of the said action is to immerse each employee to the personalities of other employees outside their department so to fully utilize their creativity in a new working environment.  A brief review on the concepts and theories of creativity will be done after the groups have been formed.  Then the first activity will take place.

Each group needs to think of a group name and incorporate a certain creativity concept.  A representative from the groups will do the explanation.  The facilitator of the seminar will discuss that creativity is present in everyone, young or old.  Also, he or she will share that a creative process needs to be undertaken within an appropriate environment or the term, press in order to come up with an output.  The next activity will be named as The Light Bulb.  This will do an approach with creativity in line with the character of Ginger in the movie Chicken Run.  The facilitator will ask the employees on how Ginger managed to be a heroine by being creative.  The answer is the fact on how Ginger observed that the chickens should fly over the fence thus coming up with an idea of making a flying machine.  The idea was made possible with the help of her other animal friends.

The goal of the activity is to tap creativity among the employees while being able to work with a team.  Stuff in the office like the printer, fax machine, pen, coffee mug, notepad, and folder will be set in front of the employees.  Then, cards in which office problems are written will be handed over.  The activity might seem to be bizarre since the solutions should come from the office tools but then again, the strange set up will let the employees do some real thinking.  The solutions of course, will not be tackled in a literal way.  If it makes sense then be it in a literal way.  For example, the problem is about an employee who is always late.  If the assigned tool for the group is a notepad, then a probable solution in real life is to let the manager do the talking and let the pages of the notepad represent the number of people who needs a job, and if he continues on being tardy, one of these people will replace him.  Through this way, the manager can let the employee feel the importance of the job.  Another example is the use of the printer.  The management should liken the working attitude of the office to that of the printer.  Obviously, no text on the paper will be printed out of there is no output.  It is similar to an office work that needs to be done effectively and efficiently before coming up with the perfect output.  Basically, like Ginger, the employees will be able to generate creative ideas through giving solutions to the problems.

The last activity will be entitled as Squeeze out the creative pulp.  This activity will have a lighter atmosphere but still enhance the creative thinking of the employees. Each group will have a turn of singing a line from a song and then the other group will continue it but by singing a line from a different song.  An example is, Hello, I love you can be sung by the first group then the next group can sing, You light up my life.  And so on until a group becomes a winner.  Each group will be given 30 seconds to think of the next line.  The analogy of giving the lyrics in a continued process is that to ensure that in real life, a creative idea will just remain as an idea if no work is done.  After the third activity, a summary of everything that has been learned will be explained by a representative of the participants as well as the facilitator.  Then, the closing remarks and the giving of awards will be shared by the highest ranking officer that is present in the seminar.  The content of the message can include motivating words on creativity while giving emphasis on the thought that the creative meter at the workplace should never run out and that each employee has a vested right of sharing his or her own creative idea.

Summary of Events
Introduction and grouping 15 minutes
Brief recap of concepts 15 minutes
First activity (group names and explanation) 30 minutes
Discussion of facilitator 15 minutes
Second activity (The Light Bulb) 30 minutes
Break time 15 minutes
Third Activity (Squeeze out the creative pulp) 30 minutes
Integration 15 minutes
Closing and Awarding for Outstanding participants, group winner 15 minutes