101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Related Activities

• Noun Hounds [29]


• Skybridging [46]

Procedure

1. Distribute the Idea Links Handout, review the exercise example with the partici-
   pants, and answer any questions they may have.


2. Tell each group to tape together two sheets of flip-chart paper, end to end, to a
   wall or other hard surface such as a table. They should tape together the ends that
   meet so there is one continuous sheet.


3. Have them write down their problem statement on another sheet of flip-chart
   paper so that it incorporates an action verb and an object.


4. Tell them to write the verb on the left side of taped-together paper and the object
   on the right side.


5. Instruct them to draw five, six-inch lines to the right of the first word so that the
   last line ends just before the object word (see the exercise handout).


6. Direct the participants to take turns free-associating a word from the verb and
   write it on the first line; the next person then uses this word to free-associate and
   write the word on the second line; and so forth.


7. Have them continue to free-associate from one word to another, writing each
   word on one of the lines, and make the final word link to the object.


8. Tell the groups to review all the associations and use them to trigger new ideas,
   writing them on Post-it®Notes and placing them on flip-chart paper for evalua-
   tion.


9. If time is available or you want to generate more ideas, have the groups repeat
   Steps 4 through 9.

Debrief/Discussion

Idea Links can be a fun technique as well as a creative thinking exercise. It is easy to use

and can result in many ideas. It also would be ideal as a warmup exercise to loosen up

participants. An interesting question to ask is whether or not participants found them-

selves evaluating their free associations. If done “correctly,” there should be no judging

about the “correctness” of a free association. Any word should qualify; the words do not

need to be justified logically.

Also consider having participants debrief using the following questions:

• What was most helpful about this exercise?


• What was most challenging?


• What can we apply?


• How would you rate the value of this exercise to helping us with this issue?

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