101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Related Activities

• Pass the Hat [63]


• Idea Pool [85]

Procedure

1. Distribute the That’s the Ticket! Handout, review it with the participants, and
   answer any questions they may have.


2. Give each group member ten blank tickets.


3. Tell them to write one idea on each ticket and place them in the center of a table.


4. Have one group member withdraw two tickets and read them aloud to the group.


5. Instruct the groups to use the combination of the two ideas as possible stimulation
   for new ideas.


6. Tell them to return the two tickets to the middle of the table and have another
   group member select two more tickets.


7. Ask them to repeat the process of choosing tickets and generating ideas until all
   group members have selected two tickets at least once or time has expired.


8. Tell them to write down any ideas on Post-it®Notes (one idea per note) and place
   them on flip charts for evaluation.

Debrief/Discussion

This activity has three primary strengths. The first is that it is a brainwriting variation in

that ideas are generated in writing. Research (Diehl & Stroebe, 1991; VanGundy, 1993)

indicates that brainwriting will result in substantially more ideas than conventional

brainstorming, since multiple ideas are generated more or less at the same time—unlike

brainstorming, in which one idea at a time is contributed. However, it also provides ver-

bal brainstorming when combining two tickets, thus offsetting the brainwriting weakness

of lacking verbal interaction. The second is that you are guaranteed at least ten ideas per

group member (assuming each member follows the instructions). Thus, if you have five

group members, you’ll get at least fifty ideas before beginning brainstorming. The third

and less important strength is that the activity provides a more interesting way to gener-

ate ideas.

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?


• What will we be able to use from this exercise?


• What ideas were generated, and which ones were most interesting?

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