Essence of the Problem Handout
Consider the problem of reducing vandalism in factory lunchrooms. One group member
believes that the essence of the problem objective is “destruction,” writes it down on a
note, and passes it to the person on his right. The person receiving that word then might
write down “defacement.” This person then has two notes containing the words
“destruction” and “defacement.” They read these words aloud to the other group mem-
bers and the group uses them to help spark ideas. For instance, the combination,
“destruction-defacement” might suggest an idea of creating a lunchroom that appears to
be defaced, but is done so in an artistic way. Another idea might be to place pictures of all
the workers in the lunch room with the hope they wouldn’t destroy the room (from
“defacement”). Or the word, “destruction” might trigger an idea to completely destroy
the current lunch room and invite the workers to participate in its reconstruction. Finally,
“defacement” might suggest literally taking the faces away from the lunch room and
eliminating it altogether.180 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving
101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &
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