Letting Unbridled Creativity and Innovation Flow In Your Business

Photo Credit: Red Travel

As a professional speaker and trainer, I am more often than not asked to speak on training that is relevant to sales and / or customer service.   While I specialize in the special events and hospitality industry, the principles I use to get departments thinking varies greatly, depending on the nature of the group and what we want to accomplish.  Below is one of my approaches, based on a technique Disney Imagineers use to get creativity and innovation flowing.  I also use this approach when working with full service planning clientele with my event planning division.

We were consulting with a front desk team for a boutique inn.  The hotel owners were implementing an entire property remodel, and with this remodel, a new "remodel"  to how the customer experience was handled with guests at check-in.  While we worked to develop a custom program to address where they wanted to be eventually, we started with developing some comradery and investment in the employees as individuals to get them engaged with themselves, each other, and the new mission.  For example, appearance was one of the goals of the owners and so we invested in new uniforms (where once no uniforms had been and at the expense of the inn), complete custom makeovers for each front desk employee, if they so chose, a day at the spa and a complimentary weekend's stay at the inn, inclusive of all food and beverage as well as offered complimentary activities at the inn.  The latter was designed to encourage the front desk team members to be able to relate to guests first-hand (and also to be able to guide them on activities through first hand experience).

But perhaps the most fun part of the workshop and training was when I walked in with a projection of a great big picture of a landscape of Tuscany, similar to the one shown here in this post.  Following what we know about some of the secrets Disney Imagineers use when they have creative brainstorming sessions, we asked the attendees to gaze at the painting.   We then asked them to write down the following (and told them that there were no wrong answers) privately, to themselves:

• What temperature is it in the picture?
• What do you hear?
• What do you think is to the left of the picture? To the right (or any part not shown in the picture itself)?
• What do you smell?
• What would you like to taste if you were sitting there?

We then took these questions and applied them to our project at hand: the front desk.  We broke out into groups and had one group brainstorm a plan for what guests would smell when they entered, another for what they would hear, etc.  We then mixed the groups up, so that each section (audio, culinary, etc) had representation from all attendees.  And then, to really unleash unbridled creative thinking, we asked each group to turn things completely upside down and consider the ridiculous:  for example, what would it look like if there were no bellcaptain?  What alternatives or creative ideas could replace that position?  The result - apart from some loosening up and great laughter and team-building- was an incredibly unique, authentic, extraordinary guest experience unlike any the inn had ever had in its history.  We are proud to say we were part of the process.

Creativity is a giant muscle that seems to be at its strongest in our childhood.  As we grow up, if not exercised, it grows weak.  It's easier to experience creative blocks.  At Engaging Inspiration, we are proud to be part of not only removing those blocks, but taking them and repurposing them in a way that may have never been thought of before, and in doing so, making an entire organization more inspired and more productive. 
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Engaging Inspiration provides sparkling marketing, training and social media for the special event & hospitality industry  designed to engage and inspire.  To learn more about it, or its Founder, Chief Innovator of Ideas Designed to Sparkle & Engage Kerry Lee Dickey, visit our Website.