The Five-senses Exercise

This exercise helps you to unleash the power of the senses. Work-life encourages you to be a one dimensional person. This reduces the power one can bring to an idea by accessing your five senses

Take an apple. Hold it in your hand and experience it fully. Touch, feel, see, hear it while biting and tasting it. Apply the thoughts you have on this experience to the problem at hand.

This method was used by a leading financial institution on the problem of how to attract and retain talent.

Seeing the apple. The sense of sight made one of the groups think of the colour of passion. This was used to come up with the idea that individuals who are passionate enough about an idea to take the initiative and risk should be rewarded.

The sight of a rotten apple gave rise to the idea that negative elements should be identified and isolated.

The red and yellow apple reminded people about the sun and they said that HR policies should be like the rising sun.

Touching the apple reminded them of the womb and they felt that HR should be as safe as the womb.

The smoothness of the apple led them to say that career progressions should be smooth with no awkward bumps. ‘Soft issues should be handled with a kind grandmother’s touch’ said someone who remembered his first apple.

The smell of the apple drew attention to the need for a friendly, pleasant atmosphere.

The sounds while eating an apple made people feel that HR policy should be crisp. The place of work should be quiet, with pleasant sounds.

The taste of the apple led to the idea that HR policy should be easy to digest and understood. Ask them to apply the sensory impressions to the problem and come up with solutions.