101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

202 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

Related Activities

• Say Cheese [44]


• We Have Met the Problem and It is We [48]

Procedure

1. Read the following to participants and ask them to respond individually:
   “Try to become as relaxed as possible. Breathe comfortably at an even rate. Listen to your breathing
   and let all stress flow out. Think about your problem in detail and try to experience it. Quickly smell
   it, see it, taste it, touch it, and hear it. Think of your sense of smell. Visualize different olfactory expe-
   riences you’ve had. For instance, you might think about some flowers you once smelled. Now, how
   might you use your sense of smell to generate ideas to solve your problem? Think of your sense of
   sight. Visualize different sight experiences you’ve had that have affected you emotionally. Now, how
   might you use your sense of sight to generate ideas to solve your problem? Continue this process
   with your senses of taste, touch, and hearing. Think of emotional experiences involving each of
   these senses.”


2. Ask them to consider what ideas they might have thought of and to write them
   down on their individual sheets of paper. For sample ideas, refer them to the
   handout.


3. Have each participant share his or her ideas, in turn, with the other group mem-
   bers, write them on a Post-it®Note, and place them on a flip chart to be evaluated.

Debrief/Discussion

To help participants relate to this technique, you first might have them experience differ-

ent items using their senses. For instance, you might place a number of objects varying in

size and texture into a paper bag and have participants try to identify them using only

their sense of touch. Or ask them to identify visually an object in a picture when only a

small part of the object is visible. Although this technique may not be as “all-purpose” as

others, it could be good enough to spark some useful ideas—and that’s all it takes some-

times!

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?


• Will this exercise be helpful in the future for other sessions?


• What did you learn?


• What will we be able to use from this exercise?


• What ideas were generated, and which ones were most interesting?

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