PROJECT: Creativity-based workshop for the Agency.
In 2013, McCann Erickson Advertising Agency merged with AVB Group. All of the sudden, people at work found themselves having to move into a different location, signing new contracts and having to work for new people.
As a result many employees gave their notice and left from both sides expressing their frustration and deep hurt for not having been asked in the first place.
Another problem to take into consideration, was that each party had a completely different mindset around ways of working. People at McCann Erickson believed in the traditional methodologies for making TV ads and outdoor printing materials. On the other side, BlueCube Interactive with a Digital background was used to a more Agile process by finding solutions much quicker and in a less conventional way.
The CEO at the time Orlaith Blaney created an hour space on Friday afternoons where people had a chance to give talks around Advertising News and Best Practice. At the time I saw this as an opportunity to introduce a new workshop which I called 'Living Creativity'.
1. WORKSHOP PRESENTATION
The main purpose of this workshop was to help get rid of the negativity spreading around colleagues and to start building a brand together from scratch. I realised that the one thing we all had in common was that we strongly believed in the power of 'Creativity'. The primary reason why we were working in an Ad Agency to begin with was because we all wanted to make meaningful and creative projects.
Before our afternoon meeting, I placed a handout on each one of the desks in every single department. Each handout had a personalised invitation, a blue sheet of paper and a set of instructions on how to make an origami heart.
I kindly asked each person to make their origami heart before coming to the workshop. I got a lot of them saying that they weren't "creatives" and that it just seemed too hard make. Myself, I would just laugh and say, 'I know you'll figure it out'.
When people attended the workshop with their paper hearts made, they weren't sure as to why this hadn't been timed in their daily schedules.
I then proceeded to give a Power Point Presentation around 'Creativity'. Up to this point I had proven that everybody in that room was capable of bringing a finished origami heart regardless of how they came to the end result. In other words, we all have the inherent capacity to be 'creative' when we set our minds to find a solution to a problem.
I proceeded to show my own origami heart which I then turned into a pop up book, then made it into a stop motion animation and finally exported it into an animated GIF with our new logo on it.
The result was a big cheer of applause. Their expression told me that they felt inspired again by this realisation. Their task now for the upcoming weeks was to come up with a project of their own by making use of their own skill set and including the 'origami heart'.
The projects you see displayed inside this case study were selected as 'Best Projects' but every single idea presented was extremely creative and the engagement was phenomenal.
CONCLUSION
During the next couple of months I sat proudly on my 'Teacher' chair leaning from my wonderful students talents. Up to this point in my career I can tell you that this is the most valuable project I've ever worked in. There is nothing more rewarding than to see people coming together with a shared common vision while giving their heart in the process, so thank you guys!
