101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

52. Turn Around

Background

Turn Around was originally developed by creativity consultant

Steve Grossman (1984) as Assumption Reversals. It is a relative of

the Law Breaker exercise [50] and generates ideas by reversing

problem assumptions in any way possible. The difference between

the two activities is that Law Breaker reverses what is commonly

accepted as a “should” about a problem (for example, chocolate should be brown),

whereas Turn Around reverses more general assumptions (for example, people eat choco-

late).

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

• Turn Around Handout

Time

30 minutes

Grab Bag: Miscellaneous Activities 225

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