101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Procedure

1. Place a set of blank puzzle pieces on each table.


2. Tell the participants to mix up the puzzle pieces on their tables and divide them
   equally among the group members.


3. Have group members write one practical idea on the first piece, an unrelated
   word on the second piece, a practical idea on the third piece, an unrelated word
   on the fourth piece, and so on until all their pieces have been used.


4. Tell the group members to assemble the puzzle.


5. After they have finished, have them select two adjacent pieces and use the combi-
   nation to spark ideas.


6. Tell them to write down their ideas on Post-it®Notes (one idea per note), select
   another two adjacent pieces, and continue this process until time is called (after
   about 20 or 30 minutes).

Debrief/Discussion

This is another activity that provides a game-like atmosphere during idea generation. It

requires both analytical and creative thinking to put together the puzzles and generate

ideas using unrelated words. The use of a hands-on activity provides a different experi-

ence than other activities. One downside is that it requires a fairly large number of puzzle

pieces and group members might lose interest over time.

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?


• What did you learn?


• What will we be able to use from this exercise?


• What ideas were generated, and which ones were most interesting?

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