79. Sculptures
Background
For many people, a sculpture is a place for pigeons to light; for others, a sculpture may
represent a sublime representation of the agonies of displaced human frailties (or some
other equally esoteric line of art babble). However you perceive sculptures, they all repre-
sent different interpretations of reality. As such, they also are stimuli capable of prompt-
ing different perspectives.
Most of the activities in this book help prompt different perspectives. An “aha!”
should be going off in your head right now. Why not use sculptures to generate ideas?
Unfortunately, most people don’t have ready access to sculptures. Although I might
like to have a sculpture garden in my backyard, it will probably be a few years before that
becomes a reality—if ever. Although most of us don’t have the resources for our own
sculpture collection, we could visit a local museum. But that’s not always convenient or
possible.
Another option is to create our own sculptures. Such a method has been used for
years as a management training activity. I learned of this version while visiting a manage-
ment consultant in Oslo, Norway. The consultant, Ole Faafeng (1986), devised this activi-
ty to help groups get more involved in brainstorming and to provide a source of
unrelated stimuli.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 eachMaterials, 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
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