Elmwood finds daydreams pay

Future brainstorms at Leeds- based Elmwood will take place on a shelf about the size of a child’s bunkbed. Heads will touch the ceiling, it’ll resemble a play pen and the exit will be by slide.

Managing director Jonathan Sands has been on a weekend workshop in Edinburgh. “It was on releasing the subconscious of your mind to be more creative, positive and happy,” he explains.

It turned out to be meditation. “It was fantastic – I feel brilliant,” he says.

Sands and nine Elmwood designers now meditate three times a day and plan to set aside a special meditation room, equipped with the converted shelf-cum-thinktank. Spirits have improved, creativity is burgeoning and all 40 staff can join in – at Sand’s expense.

Mindstore, the technique, stimulates the daydreaming part of the brain, which is the most creative.

This is the dimension in which telepathy flourishes, so perhaps Elmwood’s next move will be to chuck out phones and faxes.