Focus: Creativity, innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship

 

The Brief: To create a series of events that will inspire students and local businesses to fulfil their potential by taking calculated risks and promoting entrepreneurial thinking.

Our Response: Menagerie teamed up with conceptual artist Chris Dobrowolski to present a unique workshop and exhibition that used Chris’s art to focus on how we view success and failure, innovation and personal development, as well as offering new ideas on goal-setting, motivation, risk-taking, enterprise and entrepreneurship. The workshop followed Chris’ remarkable story as an inventor and artist and included on-site the full size plane that he built and flew (made out of newspaper and old tea chests!).

Outcome: This inspirational workshop was packed out for six sessions and had the desired effect of challenging the way people think about innovation and creativity. Lots of laughter was mixed with awe and wonder as Chris’ adventures were revealed. Follow-up workshops and activities will be taking place in regional businesses and across the university to embed this remarkable set of stories.

 

The BBC

Focus: Creativity

The Brief: To create a series of workshops focussing on unlocking creativity for BBC staff working in all media in the Eastern Region.

Our Response: A combination of unique thinking workshops focusing on initial idea generation moving onto thinking in new ways and finishing with selling and sustaining ideas.  Approaches included working with playwrights to use words more creatively, mask and mime artists to understand the power of spatial relationships and musicians to learn how sound and rhythm are underutilized in lateral thinking. Each participant undertook three workshops over two days to create a balance capture of new ways of thinking.

Outcome: Outstanding results in inspiring and motivating teams to take more imaginative risks in the way they approach work.

 

Liverpool Football Club

Focus: Organisational/ Culture shift

The Brief: As Liverpool look to expand and move to a new 60,000 seat stadium it is important that all 222 employees are prepared for the big changes, new pressures, and don’t lose the identity of the club.

Our Response: Using the arts in many forms to inspire, clarify and challenge ways of acting and thinking to internal and external forces. We created the FC programme, focusing on understanding the club Culture, its Customers and improving communication all ready for change.

Outcome: A successful three year programme has transformed the attitude to customers both internally and externally.

 

Charles Wells Brewery

Focus: Teambuilding

The Brief: Celebrate the integration of new brewing companies and a new culture focussing on customer care.

Our Response: A series of interactive events for two teams of 100 employees in our own theatre space.  We took a look at vision, values and priorities for the company through a variety of challenges, scenarios and exercises used to highlight the combined company culture. Sessions focused on building teams while enhancing the individual.  A dynamic, practical insight into the major elements that contribute to positive culture at work.

Outcome: a new way of thinking a new way of working, a celebration of the new culture at this leading brewery.

 

Zurich International Life: Financial services

Focus: Service Excellence

The Brief: Support the worldwide roll-out of Service as the number one business priority.

Our Response: We generated three programmes: which were rolled out to 800 employees in six different sites including Dubai, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

• Playing Your Part: communications skills and customer handling
• The Big Bang: Service Ethos programme
• Unto The Breach: Leadership programme

Outcome: This inspirational programme changed the culture of the business worldwide, focusing employees on task but also enlightening them with a new perspective on doing business and sustaining change.