101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

72. Best of.

Background

Remember how some children grow up taunting their friends that their father is smarter,

stronger, richer, or nicer than someone else’s father? Or have you noticed how athletes on

television point their index fingers upward while chanting, “We’re number one”?

Our society seems to have an insatiable appetite for the best of everything. Hall

(1994), creator of this activity, once conducted a computer search of newspaper abstracts

from 1991 and 1992 and found more than 11,000 instances of headlines containing the

word “best.” Every day some television show or magazine bombards us with a “Top Ten”

list or other ratings of movies, books, plays, and music. We’re a people obsessed with

who or what is best.

One benefit of these “best of” lists is that they have value as idea stimulators. Accord-

ing to Hall, brainstorming groups can use such lists to generate 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

Handout

• Best of... Handout

Time

45 minutes (requires preparation prior to the activity)

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