101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Combinations 143

29. Noun Hounds

Background

Bloodhounds are used to track people and animals. They search for a scent, lock onto it,

and then pursue their quarry relentlessly. Hounds go from one scent to the next until they

achieve their objective.

The Noun Hounds technique works in a similar manner. You start with a random

noun and then go from one association to the next until you generate a sufficient number

of ideas.

Noun Hounds (also called Modifier Noun Associations) originally was developed by

VanGundy (1983, 1988) to generate new product ideas using a random noun and a modifier

unrelated to the problem. You then free-associate from this combination to generate ideas.

Objectives

• To help participants generate as many creative ideas as possible


• To help participants learn how to use the activities to generate ideas

Participants

Small groups of four to seven people each

Materials, Supplies, and Equipment

• For each group: markers, two flip charts, and masking tape for posting flip-chart
  sheets


• For each participant: one sheet each of three different colors of sticking dots
  (^1 ⁄ 2 ” diameter) and one pad of 4 x 6 Post-it®Notes

Handout

• Noun Hounds Handout

Time

30 minutes

06 VG 119-166b 10/5/04 5:03 PM Page 143