101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Related Activities

• Brain Purge [82]


• Idea Pool [85]

Procedure

1. Distribute the Pass the Hat Handout, review it with the participants, and answer
   any questions they may have.


2. Give each small group a silly hat. (You can buy them from novelty stores or
   online.) If you don’t have any hats, use small paper bags, wastebaskets, plastic
   sacks, or pillow cases. (Of course, you’ll then need to change the name to “Pass
   the Plastic Sacks” or “Pass the Pillow Cases” or whatever.)


3. Have each group write down five problem attributes, characteristics, emotions,
   general perceptions, traits, features, or benefits of the challenge. (If there is more
   than one problem category—for example, different types of beverages such as
   punch, soda, and milk—instruct the groups to complete one list for each category,
   but no more than a total of three.)


4. Tell each group to place its list into a hat and pass the hat to another group.


5. Instruct each group to use the list it just received to think of ideas and write them
   on Post-it®Notes (one idea per note) to be placed on flip charts for evaluation.


6. Tell the groups that when they have finished with the list, to return it to the hat
   and pass it to another group, which then uses the list for stimulation.


7. After the groups have used all the available lists or time is called, stop the exercise
   (a time limit will generally be needed only when there are multiple lists).

Debrief/Discussion

Although Pass the Hat was originally developed for use with multiple groups, it will also

work with just one group. Simply use the lists individuals generate instead of one passed

to you by another group. One nice feature of this activity is that it provides problem-relat-

ed stimuli that might help provoke new ideas. A more important feature, however, is its

use of ideas from other groups to help spark new ideas. A more rich idea pool is likely to

result. If time is available, you might ask the groups to discuss the advantages and disad-

vantages of sharing ideas with other groups.

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?

Brainstorming with Related Stimuli 269

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