The process of creative thinking is not something that can be taught.  However it is something that can be encouraged.  There are a few steps to encouraging creative thinking.  First of all, you must break your current mental habits.  If you approach things in your mind the same way every time, you are not going to come up with a creative and possibly better solution to an issue.  Then you must understand your own why you do things the way you do.  Finally you must then try to come up with new ideas and solutions by approaching problems differently to how you would normally.

This is an area where group participation in a workshop will work very well.  When in a group, people find it easier to come up with new ideas, or to take other people ideas and change them into something else.  The more people discuss problems, the more they are able to approach these problems from different directions, to come up with creative solutions to problems.

It is important that people realise that you cannot be trained in how to think creatively.  All that can be done is to provide exercises and training on different ways to apply and practice the skill rather than train how to think creatively.

Communication is one of the more important things in a company. Staff members practise it on a daily basis, from talking to clients, to team members, to managers and everyone else involved with the company. However, it is still something that can fail. Miscommunication can happen, with one party to the communication not understanding the other, which can, in extreme cases, lead to major issues within the company, or worse, with a client.

It is essential to make sure that everyone in the company has communication skills of a high enough level that miscommunication does not occur. There are a wide range of things that can be taught in an employee workshop on training, from how to give and receive praise, to how to communicate effectively in an email. It is important that people understand how to listen, as that is 50% of communication. It is difficult for people to listen to another person talk, especially when they have something to say that they feel is very important.

An employee workshop that can help almost any employee is one on how to write effectively.  Many forms of contact by employees in today’s workplace, whether internally or externally, are by written word.   Whether it is a letter, report or email,  it is important that the person writing it knows how to write in a way that is understood by everyone reading it.  All to often, with the immediacy of email, and other factors, the most important part of the writing is forgotten - how to do it effectively.  There is no point in writing a letter that no one understands, or writing a report that does not inform the way it should.  Employees need to be shown how writing effectively can help to make their jobs easier and simpler.

Different forms of written contact have slightly different styles to be effective.  For example, email is seen as a more informal way of communication than by letter.  This means that the writing style is different.  However, the principles to writing effectively remain the same:

• People need to understand what makes an effective letter or email.
• Make sure that preparation for the letter/ email is done fully before starting to write it.
• Realise that tone and personality can and do come out in writing, and that it is important to make sure that they convey the right ones.
• Communicate the message so that the reader can understand it easily.

Writing effectively is the sort of training that everyone in a company can benefit from.  It can help with clarifying internal communications, while also improving client relationships.