101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

I Like It Like That Handout

Suppose you decide to use analogies to help recruit more engineers for your organization.

The major principle in this case is, “getting more of something.” Thus, you might think of

analogies prompted by the phrase, “This problem is like.. .”

• asking your parents for an increase in your allowance.


• asking your boss for a raise.


• asking a cook for more food.


• asking your boss for more time to complete a project.


• an employee trying to get more power over another employee.


• a football team trying to win more games.


• a panhandler begging for more money.


• calling people to sell more magazines.

Select one of these analogies and elaborate.

A panhandler begging for more money involves the following things:

• Deciding which people to ask


• Not being too overbearing


• Watching out for the police


• Looking pathetic


• Using creative requests, such as asking for a quarter to call about graduate school
  admission


• Looking as presentable as possible


• Maintaining eye contact


• Finding the best location


• Using many different locations

Finally, use the elaborations to suggest ideas for recruiting engineers:

• Screen potential candidates using recommendations and background checks.


• Use a “soft sell” approach; don’t seem overly interested.


• Conduct security checks.


• Tell top recruits how much you need them.


• Give prospects a toll-free number to call if they have questions.


• Scout out the best recruiting locations.


• Search for a variety of personality and ability types by recruiting from many different
  schools in various regions of the country.

240 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &

Sons, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. http://www.pfeiffer.com

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