101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

54. Chain Alike

Background

If you generate ideas using analogies, your source of stimulation is generally limited to

comparisons with the basic problem principle. For instance, the problem of preventing

shoplifting (the Bionic Ideas [53] illustration) is limited to analogies involving the princi-

ple of prevention. Although there is nothing wrong with this limitation, it does restrict the

number of possible problem perspectives. And that’s not good.

Fortunately, all is not lost. The Chain Alike activity attacks problems from multiple

perspectives. And that’s good.

Chain Alike is based on the Attribute Analogy Chains procedure developed by

Koberg and Bagnall (1976). Ideas are generated by listing problem attributes, developing

analogies for each attribute, and then using the analogies to prompt ideas.

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


• (Optional) One paper or electronic thesaurus for each group

Handout

• Chain Alike Handout

234 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

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