By the left, quick ... think.

I can't quite believe it's almost the end of the first quarter of 2012. I hope your year has gone well so far.

Mine hasn't started quite as I planned. A few days into January I had what is known in medical circles as "a wee scare".

I woke with strange pins and needles down the left side of my body, which qualified me for a visit from two very nice paramedics and a trip in an ambulance.

A few days in the stroke unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, some investigation and tender loving care from a battalion of quite brilliant doctors and nurses, and now, a diet made up completely of food which is low in fat, low in salt, and very definitely low in flavour.

There was no advance warning, and in fact, no visual, long-term proof from the various tests I've undergone. But it seems I had some sort of stroke on the right side of my brain.

And my goodness, I've undergone some tests. MRI, Cat Scan, blood tests, urine checks, heart monitor, that one with the iodine to test for starch, a gentle popping noise to show the presence of hydrogen, and several flame tests to indicate positive metal ions.

Actually, I might have mixed some of those tests up with Alex and Ellen's Chemistry revision.

The upside (apart from surviving) was that I got to talk to a lot of doctors, including many who are specialists in the workings of the brain.

And guess what? It turns out that all that HeadSurfing stuff I've been banging on about - that actions you take with the left side of the body can help stimulate the right side of the brain - turns out to be right on the money.

One of the things that always intrigued me about the highly creative people I've been lucky enough to work with - the copywriters, art directors, graphic designers and stand-up comedians - was how many of them were left handed. In every agency I worked in, the proportion of lefties who worked in the creative department was always much higher than the general population, and the same was true of comics.

Following my "incident", the doctors and physios were keen for me to keep exercising the left side of my body, in order to rebuild and reconnect the nerve endings in the right side of my brain. And as the right side of the brain includes more of the centres which involve creativity, humour and ideas, it makes sense to me that stimulating those areas will help you come up with more ideas and more innovative solutions to your problems and challenges.

So if you'd like to develop your ability to think creatively, I'd urge you to take time to do things which engage more with the right side of your brain.

Yes, you could exercise the left side of your body - try writing or sketching with your left hand. But other activities could include listening to music, using colour rather than black and white, exercising rhythmically or watching or reading something that makes you laugh.

Me? I think it's important to develop the rational as well as the creative side of my brain, so I'm doing the John Travolta dance moves from Saturday Night Fever.

Does where you work affect how you think?

I've worked in lots of different offices, and visited many more. Wide open, light and bright. Crowded, dingy and dark. On my own, with a partner, and in a team.

In every place I've worked, a key priority was to come up with ideas. Whether it was for running the team, working with clients, or new marketing campaigns. In every office, we had ideas. But in some of them, we had more ideas - and better ideas - than in others. Over the years, I've become convinced that Environment (or at least how you work with your Environment) is a key cultural condition of creativity.

A great environment contributes to the generation of ideas - and a poor one works against it. Working in a box isn't really conducive to thinking outside it.

Not all of us can work at Google (take a look at their office by putting in "images for google offices" on, er, Google). Or First Direct (the only contact centre I've ever been in where the environment is calm, relaxed and casual). Or even a groovy ad agency with a blue sky painted on the ceiling of the "thinking room".

But we can all improve the way we use our office environment to improve the way we think.

Get away from your desk Sitting in the same place, in the same position, surrounded by the same people, screen and furniture does no good for your creativity. Go for a walk round the building. Switch desks with someone else for a while. Find an empty meeting rooms and work there - cover the walls in flipchart paper and scribble! And while you're at it ...

Go for lunch I know, I know, you're busy. And everyone else eats at their desk. And anyway, that's the only time you have for Facebook. Stop it! Go somewhere new for lunch. Just a new sandwich bar, or the park, or by the river or canal, will make it much easier for you to think. At least once a week, take lunch Al Fresco instead of Al Desko. (Sorry).

Enhance what you have  OK, so you may not have a budget for repainting, knocking down a wall, or even a sofa or mini-football table. But when you need to come up with ideas, all you need to do is change what you have. Find a quiet corner and listen to some music (especially music you don't normally listen to). Surround yourself with creative stimulus (new postcards, pictures, books, magazines). Put up photographs that inspire you and energise your creativity (mine include David Bowie, Eddie Izzard, Paolozzi, Bob Marley and Dali).

Find what works for you, and use it. Some people think creatively when surrounded by colour, natural light, noise, stimulus. For others, they need to get away from that and move to a quiet, all-white room.

Look at what's around you when you find yourself getting ideas, and replicate that in your workplace.

Environment is just one of my 3 Cultural Conditions of Creativity. I'll be talking more about it (and the other conditions, tools and techniques) in the Headsurfing public seminars I'm running this month in Edinburgh (23rd August) and London (30th).

At £190 for Edinburgh and £230 for London they're great value - I'll deliver a full day of creative inspiration, new tools and techniques, attitudes and behaviours that will help you become instantly more creative.

If you'd like to come along, let me know as soon as you can - the last workshops sold out completely.

Facilitating a brainstorm - managing participants

Do you ever get the feeling that managing meetings would be easy - if it wasn't for the people involved?

I think we've all been there. But handling people - even problem participants - is easy when you know how. You need to think about the problem in advance, learn a few engagement techniques - and then implement them as the meeting or brainstorm progresses.

There are certain types of "problem participants" who occur all too often:

• The motormouth, who wants to dominate every conversation
• The wallflower, who doesn't want to talk at all
• The person who seems only to see the negative in everything
• The aggressive person, who delights in personal criticism and attacks (but only on others)
• The person who is always late and perpetually distracted

In the first instance, agree groundrules in advance - and keep them on display. These should include the rule  that the times of the brainstorm will be honoured, that all attendees are expected to participate, and that only one person should talk at one time (the "one singer, one song" rule). 

In addition, almost all "problem" behaviours can be handled by facilitation techniques. 

In order of escalation they are: 

1. Mention their name (most people respond and attend when they hear their own name)
2. Move towards them
3. Put a hand on their shoulder (but be aware of cultural issues which discourage touching) and
4. Call a coffee or natural break, and have a word with the person causing the problem.

In the last instance, if their behaviour is truly breaking up the brainstorm, explain the problem and ask them to leave the meeting if they cannot behave in a way that will contribute to achieving what the meeting needs to. 

In addition, be aware that people have different ways of engaging at work. Their personalities differ, and the way they work and communicate with other people can differ dramatically. There are several ways of understanding different personality styles -  from Belbin and Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), to NLP Representational Styles (Auditory, Visual, Kinaesthetic etc) and the Insights Colour system.

The sense behind each of them is that if you understand your own "type", and can flex to communicate in the way others prefer, you'll have much more success in communicating with them.

The system I use is Social Styles, with the primary types of Driver, Analytical, Amiable and Expressive. I find it simple to understand and translate into action, and I use it to understand any type of communication issue and any type of audience.

It's worth trying to work with these communication systems - check them out online, or talk to your HR colleagues.

Creativity Tip - Improve your facilitation skills

I’ve been working with a great new client over the last couple of weeks – the makers of three (if not four) of my favourite whiskies.

As well as doing the opening keynote at their conference (which was a blast) they asked me to train some of their key staff in facilitating brainstorms – so that during the conference we could run several creative thinking sessions simultaneously, getting the most out of them.

The ability to run a meeting properly is a great skill to have – it cuts down on wasted time, keeps energy levels up, and helps your colleagues to look forward to meetings rather than hate them.

The first tip I’d give you is that The facilitator’s key responsibility is to ensure the meeting achieves its objectives.

There’s no other point to facilitating – indeed, there’s no other point to any meeting.

Of course, step one is to have objectives in the first place. Ever been to a meeting that seemed to have no objective, no process, and no point? Thought so.

I’ll put up the key tasks of the facilitator – managing the meeting, managing people and managing process included – as well as tips and strategies for success on this blog over the next couple of weeks.

To learn the skills you need to get the most out of your sessions, keep reading the tips.