80 October 2010
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Meeting of minds A new initiative to nurture creative thinking and galvanise team dynamics has been introduced by EPSRC – and paves the way for new-style sessions run by university project teams themselves. Most academics pride themselves on their problem-solving skills – and rightly so. It’s our stock-in trade. But imagine what it might be like if we could all take our creative thinking and productivity to a higher level? New-style academic-led free-thinking sessions inspired by a series of EPSRC pilots look set to do just that. EPSRC invited leading professional facilitators to devise bespoke sessions that specifically focus on creative problemsolving (CPS). Over 70 academics and industrial partners were invited to take part in the pilots – and were encouraged to leave their preconceptions at the door. The project, entitled Creativity@home, was piloted with six cross-disciplinary EPSRCfunded research groups. Each group was given access to a professional facilitator for up to three working days – the aims and objectives were left up to the groups to decide. EPSRC’s Dr Paula Duxbury says: “The new-style cross-disciplinary sessions are all about arming yourself with a set of tools to help you work smarter and more productively – where the methods and tools are just as important as the outcomes. The feedback (www.epsrc. ac.uk/newsevents/news/2010/Pages/ creativethinkinginresearch.aspx) we received was fantastic. We couldn’t have hoped for better.” Space prevents a detailed explanation of the CPS process; suffice to say it not only opens your mind up to new ways of thinking, it maximises the power of group collaboration – and is entirely focused on achieving practical results. One of the delegates, Oscar Ces, a senior
lecturer from the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Chemical Biology at Imperial College London, says: “The science that emerged from the sessions was very much applied science, which had either a medical or industrial relevance. The facilitators really know their stuff; they know how to work with academics and how to get the most of the group dynamic. The icing on the cake is that the problem-solving techniques we learned will have a lasting benefit.” PhD student Aline Vernier says: “Like most physicists I’m dubious about terms like ‘creativity workshop’, and I was initially sceptical about the project. In fact it turned out to be a very stimulating meeting of minds. “No idea was a bad idea, and any criticism was held back until each suggestion had been carefully considered. We all came away armed with new problem-solving techniques. But you have to be disciplined, and keep working at your technique, like you would with a musical instrument.”
The new-style crossdisciplinary workshops are all about arming yourself with a set of tools to help you work smarter and more productively. Paula Duxbury says: “Some might argue that you don’t need blue-sky thinking sessions to learn how to think creatively, but results from the pilots were so encouraging that EPSRC is offering its programme grant holders the opportunity to hold their own creative problem-solving sessions based on this model.
Wider impact Dr Wing-Chau Tung, a project manager at the Institute of Chemical Biology at Imperial College London, participated in the Creativity@home project. Wing-Chau says: “The facilitators were excellent, and inspired a fresh approach to traditional brainstorming, as well as to how we present our findings to stakeholders. So much so that we are already training our own people at ICL to run creative problem-solving sessions using the tools we gained from the scheme, with a view to rolling out the facilitated model throughout the university.”
Contact: Paula Duxbury paula.duxbury@epsrc.ac.uk
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A CHANCE TO JOIN AN EPSRC ADVISORY BODY
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inaugural meeting of THE chemistry grand challenge
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“We’re also exploring how the concept might apply to other strategic investments.” 1