101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

98. Pass the Buck

Background

“Passing the buck” is an old expression mean-

ing avoiding responsibility by blaming or other-

wise involving someone else. Various

take-charge presidents and business executives

helped popularize the expression by asserting

that “the buck stops here.” Hall (1994) created a

new use for the phrase “pass the buck” by

developing an activity using the expression.

Pass the Buck was designed for use by four

different small groups. It can be modified easily,

however, for just one group.

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, one sheet of 8.5” x 11” paper, 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


• A musical CD or cassette player with relatively loud, high-energy music

Time

20 minutes

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