Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 2, Session 4: Creative Ideas | Page 66 of 127- After the time limit, ask participants to stop. Have them leave their flip chart paper and move as a
group to another flip chart paper. Say:
“At your new flip chart, I would like you to quickly read through the ideas and do two things. Add at
least three ideas. Then look at all the ideas, pick two, and write the opposite of these ideas on the flip
chart. Be as creative as you can – even to the point of being silly. You have three minutes.”- When three minutes are over, again ask groups to leave their paper and move to a different one. Give
these instructions:
“With your new flip chart, review everything written there and then do two things. Add at least one
new idea. Then take any two ideas and combine them into a new idea. Again, let creativity rule with no
boundaries. Don’t limit your thinking. You have three minutes.”- When three minutes are over, again ask groups to leave their paper and move to a different one. Give
these instructions:
“With your new flip chart, review everything written there and then do two things. Add at least one
new idea. Then eliminate at least one idea by drawing a box or rectangle around it. Be creative. You
have three minutes.”- Ask groups to move once more but this time give them a couple minutes to review the new flip chart
and be prepared to summarize it for the whole group. Then ask each group to report out. - Ask some of the following discussion questions to help participants get the most out of the activity:
Which flip charts were the most difficult to think creatively about?
What are some advantages of being as imaginative as possible? (Possible answers: Inventing
more options. It’s more fun. You feel like you are accomplishing more.)
Did your group become more creative as the activity progressed? If yes, to what degree? A lot?
A little?
After thinking more creatively about the things you have to do, to what extent do they now
seem more manageable?
This activity gave you a chance to use some common ways to be more creative: Writing down
lots of ideas; Adding ideas to a list; Thinking of the opposite; Combining ideas; Eliminating
ideas. Which of these did you most enjoy doing?B. Summary
Show Flipchart 1: Get Creative and summarize by saying:
“These are just a few ways you can stretch your thinking to come up with more options. We’ll next use
these strategies in some situations that are more like what you experience every day.”