Innovation in Practice

On Monday I went up to Leicester with some other folks from the Lab to run an event called ‘Innovation in Practice’ for some new hires into our services teams within IBM. This was an event run by members of the iSIG (Innovation Special Interest Group); on this occasion the iSIG members were all Hursley Lab employees preparing a session for IBMers working outside of the Lab. We designed the event with a hands-on approach with the aim of equipping attendees with the skills and confidence to make innovative contributions in their work and even other aspects of life.

Even in the sweltering heat on a lovely sunny day, the event seemed to be a huge success and everyone was extremely enthusiastic. On the day, attendees were required to elect which sessions to attend and we were a popular choice, having fun running round trying to find enough chairs! The techniques we taught were applied by the groups against a simple problem with some fantastic innovative results. After this we encouraged them try and apply it to problems of their own and the teams had formed such a great bond in a short period of time, they all chose to work together (without us asking!) on trying to solve each other’s problems.

All in all it was a great fun day, hopefully resulting in the attendees leaving with some useful skills.