Related Activities
- As Easy As 6–3–5 [81]
- Brain Purge [82]
- Idea Mixer [84]
- Idea Pool [85]
- Out of the Blue Lightning Bolt Cloudbuster [88]
Procedure
- Tell the groups to select one member to be the “dealer.”
- Ask the dealer in each group to deal the others (and the dealer) seven index cards
each as their “starting hands.” - Tell them to write one idea on a card and pass it to anyone they choose in the
group. Have them continue this process for 10 minutes or until there is a lull in
activity. - The only restriction is that each member must receive at least two cards each.
- Have each member show his or her “hand” (that is, read aloud the ideas) and then
place the cards in the center of the table. - Instruct the groups to create a “pot” of additional ideas. To do this, note that each
person should ante up his or her cards (put them in the center of the table) in turn,
after writing an idea on each card. - Tell all participants that the last person in each group with an additional idea
when time is called (15 minutes) will win some prize such as a dream date, vaca-
tion, or whatever prize the group decides is appropriate. You also might offer a
prize for the group with the most ideas. - Direct the group members to pin the cards to a bulletin board, foam boards, or just
lay them out on a table in logical clusters involving commonalities (aka “affinity
groups”). - Ask the group members to review the ideas and see if any new ideas are prompt-
ed. If so, have them add new idea cards to the clusters and evaluate the ideas
using Post-it®Notes on flip charts.
Debrief/Discussion
This activity capitalizes on the fun people can have playing cards in addition to individu-
al competitiveness. Most idea generation activities exhort participants to generate a given
number of ideas. Although this can be motivating, the desire to “win” a game can be even
stronger. If your participants include some who are familiar with card games, you might
ask for suggestions on variations of this exercise.
Also consider having participants debrief using the following questions:- What was most helpful about this exercise?
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