101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

• 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

• What’s the Problem? Handout

Time

45 minutes

Related Activities

• Essence of the Problem [38]

Procedure

Note:There are two ways to facilitate this exercise. One is to guide all of the groups

through the steps. The other is to train individual facilitators for each group. The proce-

dure below assumes that you are facilitating all of the groups at once. It also assumes that

the group members are not aware of what the challenge is—although that is not essential.

1. Distribute the What’s the Problem? Handout, review it with the participants, and
   answer any questions they may have.


2. Describe a general, abstract problem without revealing the “real” problem. This
   abstract problem should describe the general principle underlying the real prob-
   lem (see the handout).


3. Ask the participants to generate ideas for the abstract problem.


4. Describe a slightly less abstract, more specific version of the real problem and ask
   the groups to generate ideas for it.


5. Describe an even more specific version of the real problem and ask the groups to
   generate ideas for it.


6. Reveal the real problem and instruct the group members to examine the ideas for
   the two abstract problems and use them as stimuli for new ideas.


7. 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 stands alone among idea generation activities. Its premise is different from

all other activities in that it assumes that the participants are not aware of the problem. As

a result, this approach helps participants get outside of themselves (or “outside the box”)

in a way not possible with other activities. If the participants are not aware of the prob-

lem, then they are prevented from making unwarranted assumptions that typically block

most people when trying to resolve a problem.

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