Kneeling on salt and why there is always a better way — A workplace creativity exercise

When I was around seven or eight years old, along with the zeal and curiosity that comes with the age, I’ve also created a lot of trouble.

I remember a specific incident. There was a pile of dead leaves that were being burned on our back yard. Somehow, there is also a plastic drinking straw burning and it’s dripping melted plastic. I was fascinated because it looked like small fireballs ( For reference here is a youtube vid on how it looks like )

And since I was a reckless kid, I got a stick and started playing with the melted plastic. Eventually, some of the melted plastic splattered on my skin resulting in burnt scars that I still have until now. Good Job!

One afternoon, after causing another kind of trouble I already forgot, I found myself kneeling on grains of salt, not on the knee-friendly table salt, but on the I’m-not-going-to-do-it-again coarse sea salt. After that and after all the scolding I got from my Mother, I realized that things need to change so one day I gathered my courage and said this to my nanay:

After that, my mother would always scold me “nicely”. Letting me know that I should stop or change since she is already explaining things to me in a nice and calm way.

As I grow up and turn into an adult, I always try to live both my personal life and my career with that principle in mind. Whether it’s designing an easier way to give vitamins to my nephew or creating a better process to handle platform issues of the client, I’m always on the lookout for better ways.

How many times have you heard someone say: “It has always been the way things are done here.” Annoying right? That is the cue to start looking.

Traditions could sometimes distract us from noticing the things that could be improved. Just conforming to the usual way of doing things is lazy, pointing out areas that could be improved takes guts.

Before your next brainstorming session, try this fun and easy creativity exercise with your team.

EXERCISE TITLE: Don’t be lazy!

Step 1: On a small post-it note, ask your team to write a simple sentence containing a verb.

Example: He climbed the stairs, Tim checks the time, Solene cleans her desk.

Step 2: Collect all the papers and pick one sentence from the bunch.

Step 3: Ask everyone to focus on the verb and channel their inner Rowling in order to write a more descriptive version of the sentence

Example:

Original: He climbed the stairs.

Version 2: He placed his right foot on the step above, slowly activating the muscle strands from his toes, to his calf, all the way to his legs until he can carry the whole of his weight and then he repeated the process with his left foot.

Tip: To make it more exciting and to lighten up the mood, ask your teammates to read aloud their sentences with feelings. :)

By asking your teammates to focus on the verb and be more imaginative and descriptive, you will ready their minds to notice points of improvement and to come up with novel solutions.

Want to host creativity games and exercises in your office? Shoot me a message and let’s collaborate to squeeze out novel and fresh ideas from your team. :)

Thanks for reading!

UPDATE: We’re trying to change the internship landscape in the Philippines, here’s how we are doing it.