101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Time

45 minutes

Related Activities

• Text Tickler [20]


• Blender [58]


• Force-Fit Game [74]

Procedure

1. Divide the participants into groups of six people.


2. Distribute the Roll Call Handout, review it with the participants, and answer any
   questions they may have.


3. Ask half the members of each group to call out one word each. Explain that the
   words should be whatever pops into their heads. Note also that they shouldn’t
   think very long about what word to say and that the words should be unrelated to
   the problem.


4. Give the group members 104 seconds to create a practical idea based on combin-
   ing the three words or using the individual words for stimulation. (Hall doesn’t
   say why he chose 104 seconds, but probably just to be different.)


5. Instruct them to write down their ideas on Post-it®Notes (one idea per note) and
   place them on a flip chart for evaluation.


6. Ask the participants to repeat Steps 3 to 5, but have the remaining group members
   call out the words.


7. Repeat this process again using the original three members to call out new words
   and continue until time is called.

Debrief/Discussion

Unlike many situations in life, this activity works best when you talk before you think. Its

major strength is that it encourages spontaneity and helps eliminate judgmental thinking.

Group members are forced to leap to conclusions instead of leaping to ideas. Thus, they

have little choice but to defer judgment and the result should be more novel ideas than

had they constrained themselves.

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?

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