Dr. Bawja: Needless to say, creativity isn’t something you can simply turn on and off, but you can still establish structures that will help you boost your own creativity. And while this may sound a bit counter intuitive at first, one good option is to have certain routines. Take, for example, a “quiet hour” at work, which can be taken every morning at the office. During this hour, you don’t check your emails. You leave the phone off. And by eliminating these sources of distraction, you can pursue your creative ideas and work without any interruptions for a full hour. Of course, it’s perfectly possible for someone to suffer from creative block even when all distractions are gone, so sometimes it’s necessary to use additional techniques to get things started. One of them is to write down anything that comes to mind regardless of whether it seems to make sense or not at first.

At this point, it’s probably also worth mentioning that not every creative thought or idea will necessarily be good, and that this is OK. Evaluating the ideas comes later. What you want at this point is to generate them.

You should also think about other things (such as music, relaxation techniques, etc.) that could help you boost your creativity and adopt the right mindset. And one last tip: Don’t forget to take breaks! If you’ve been caught up on a single topic for a while, it might make sense to take a break, leave the office, and take a short walk through the company or a walk outside during your lunch break. That could be the key to putting some distance between yourself and your task. Oh, and you can also try to view your task from a different angle and see if that helps you develop some new ideas.

Dr. Bawja: Well, there are studies that show that diversity and creativity are related to each other. Kurzberg (2005), for example, showed that heterogeneous teams were actually able to generate more ideas. But just what exactly diversity needs to look like in order to truly result in greater creativity is not as clear: Is it about the team members’ diverse backgrounds? Or rather about different ways to approach problems? Right now, the latter is usually given more importance. However, it’s also important to point out that more heterogeneity can result in conflicts and frustration, that is, if the differences within a team are too big, members can be less satisfied and productive results may actually be affected adversely. And what this means is that it’s important to foster a good, open work atmosphere between team members.

Dr. Bawja: By being proactive and focusing on means and resources. I’m sure you are well aware that we have somewhat of a perfectionist in us, and sure, that can definitely help motivate us to really work hard at solving some problem or task really well. But at the same time, perfect solutions are simply not possible sometimes, and in those cases, perfectionism can prevent us from starting, continuing, or completing a task.

Now, it goes without saying that a large and complex idea can’t just be implemented at the push of a button, of course. Instead, you need to think in terms of (negotiable) partial goals. So it’s important to get in touch with these perfectionist impulses in order to keep your motivation going, but also to be ready for setbacks.

One common mistake is that people underestimate the amount of time that implementing an idea takes. And what that ends up doing, for example, is making it impossible to meet a planned implementation deadline because not enough time was scheduled for it. Now, it’s also important to point out that these mistakes are almost guaranteed to happen at some point, so what’s essential is to know how to handle them correctly. Basically, what you want to do is try and learn from your mistakes, which in this example would mean scheduling in more time for your tasks. Ultimately, this will spare you the frustration of making the same mistake over and over again.

The online platform was developed within the scope of several EU projects, especially Go-Lab, Next-Lab and GO-GA that have been initiated in 2012. Today, Go-Lab is no longer a mere project but rather a community of several players from the fields of science and teaching, the professional development of teachers, and the software industry. We refer to this cooperation community as the "Go-Lab initiative".

The Go-Lab Ecosystem was designed in close cooperation with school teachers. As of this date it's the world's largest platform for online laboratories provided by industry leaders.

In the Go-Lab Ecosystem teachers and their students have access to more than 600 online laboratories. This can include virtual - i.e. simulated - as well as remotely controlled experiments, in which the web interface enables students and teachers to access real laboratories.

Teachers have the possibility to select an online laboratory that matches the lesson topic and can combine it with interactive learning applications and other content in a virtual learning environment, building a so-called "Inquiry Learning Space". They share this learning environment with their students via a web link, which enables them to utilize this Space in the classroom but also at home.

Structured learning environments such as these guide students through the research process and support them in every phase. This way they learn how to phrase research questions and hypotheses, how to verify them by experiment, how to analyze the collected data, and how to summarize such data in a digital report.

The underlying idea is to introduce students to scientific subjects and encourage them to pursue a career in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It was, however, very important to us to not only provide theoretical knowledge but also impart practical skills and abilities. This is why Go-Lab allows students to work like real scientists during the lessons and provides the necessary research skills, such as analytical thinking and an empirical approach. Go-Lab also takes the so-called "21st-century skills" into account since it integrates collaboration and reflection into the learning process.

With its huge selection of online laboratories end ready-to-use virtual learning environments Go-Lab basically covers all age groups from six through 18 years. It's focus, however, is rather on secondary level education.

The platform can be accessed from all over the world. It is mainly used in Europe but also in our partner countries in Africa, i.e. Kenya, Nigeria and Benin. To date, approximately 120,000 students were able to benefit from Go-Lab.The online laboratories are available in more than 60 languages, while Inquiry Learning Spaces can be prepared and published in almost any language.

Some of the providers in our partner network offer professional online labs at a certain charge. These online laboratories will now be available as "premium labs" in addition to our free offer that we will of course continue to provide.

Our partner LabsLand, for example, offers a large variety of remotely controlled laboratories. Their huge advantage is that the installation of every laboratory is replicated at several universities and research institutes, thus ensuring continuous availability and excellent technical reliability. These labs enable students to program real Arduino robots and to conduct experiments covering topics such as radioactivity and kinematics.

It's exactly this service that we offer together with LabsLand free of charge from now on since we want to help mitigating the effects of school closings due to the corona pandemic as much as possible.

imc as a pioneer of digitalization is an expert in working remotely. We are able to guarantee the same high level of operations and customer service that you’ve come to enjoy daily from us - even while our team is working from home.

We have systems in place that allow us to work with no interruption to service. Even so, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have reviewed our Business Continuity Plan and can confirm that no gaps exist for this specific threat. We have also confirmed that all critical third-party infrastructure providers are prepared and adequately addressing the threat.

Our shared passion may temporarily be challenged, but at imc we believe in its enduring power to connect us and move us closer to our vision: empower people and organisations throughout the world to achieve their full potential in a constantly evolving world. At all times, we remain grounded in our purpose and focused on our values of inclusion and respect. COVID-19 does not distinguish between nationality, race or geographic origin, and imc’s steadfast commitment to inclusion and care guides our actions, at our properties and in our communities.

imc firmly believes: Diversity and equal opportunities are crucial for corporate success because they promote creativity and innovation. This is why the company officially committed to the Diversity Charter last year. 2020 will see diversity anchored deeper and become more tangible. Initially, the focus will be on the following three core areas:

1. Cultural diversity
2. Professional diversity
3. Female leadership

The International Women’s Day 2020 marks the beginning. The next milestone is Diversity Day on 26th May.

Trust the power of compliments. Leave a colleague, a female family member or a friend a short note to tell her what makes her so special to you. You can request the imc International Women’s Day postcard free of charge by emailing vanessa.klein@im-c.de.