AP reports on seminars for Chinese employees to help them “think outside the box” and foster their innovatiion:

While the state is spending billions of dollars on technology parks, research grants and art programs, the drive for creativity has spawned a market for classes run by foreign trainers like Schlaijker and Magee.

“It’s a matter of survival,” said Schlaijker, a Chinese-speaking American who works in Shanghai for ?What If!, a British marketing and employee-development consultancy.

That’s where those chicken impressions come in. During an English-language session at a Shanghai golf resort, ?What If! trainers worked with L’Oreal China employees to psyche them up for creative thinking. Trainees flapped their arms, mimicking a “sexy,” “happy” or “Italian” bird. A rubber chicken thrown down the hall disturbed a Prada conference next door.