101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

82. Brain Purge

Background

Before we can think of creative solutions, we often must purge ourselves of more tradi-

tional or obvious ideas. Brain Purge, originally developed by Geschka (1979) as Pin

Cards, allows you to flush out ideas you can think of immediately or ideas you have been

waiting to express. However, don’t use this activity just to get rid of conventional ideas. It

also is a handy way to generate many ideas—in a relatively short time—for almost any

problem situation. You’ll find that Brain Purge is similar to As Easy As 6–3–5 [81], but not

as structured.

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

Time

20 minutes

Related Activities

• Idea Pool [85]


• Organizational Brainstorms [87]

Brainwriting with Related Stimuli 333

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