Chapter 8Grab Bag: Miscellaneous Activities
O
pen the bag. Now reach right in and help yourself. Grab whatever you find. Don’t be
shy; take a risk and see what you get. You’ll never know if you don’t try.
A grab bag can’t be beat when it comes to surprises. You never know what you’re
going to get. That also is true of this chapter. You don’t know what you’re going to get
because this chapter contains miscellaneous activities.
Grab bag activities actually involve two different types of idea stimulators. The first
type, “backward,” includes activities that involve reversing or turning around a problem
in some way. The second, “just alike only different,” contains activities based on analogi-
cal thinking; that is, they generate ideas by focusing on similarities between a problem
and something else.
Because these two types force us to look at our problems differently, these activities
are especially useful for creating unique perspectives. Thus, the activities in this chapter
possess considerable diversity in their approaches to generating ideas.NOTE: FOR ALL ACTIVITIES, REMIND PARTICIPANTS
TO DEFER JUDGMENT WHILE GENERATING IDEAS.“Backward” Activities: Reversals
Backward activities stimulate your brain by forcing you to reverse problem aspects and
view things differently. This opposite tactic is not what most people expect to use when
generating ideas. The typical reaction is to plunge right in and attack a problem by gener-
ating solutions—definitely a direct approach.
The point is, however, that reversals avoid the tendency to lock in on just one way of
viewing a problem. Divergent, creative thinking requires many problem viewpoints.LLLL
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