Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 2, Session 4: Creative Ideas | Page 68 of 127
Note: Provide an example for this first step for one flip chart. Often there is room for being creative with regard to when
something is started, the way it is done, when it needs to be finished, etc. For example, if the priority is to clean the yard
around the house or school, can the youth decide when to start? Can they ask a friend to help them?
- After five minutes, ask the groups to stop working. Have them leave their flip charts where they are
and ask each group to move to the flip chart of another group. Then give these instructions:
“Looking at your new flip chart, read through what is there 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.”
Note: Provide another example for the same flip chart as before. For example, what if you cleaned the yard at exactly 7:15
every day? Or what if you could pay 10 friends to clean the yard for you? An opposite might be, what if 10 friends paid you
to clean the yard?
- When three minutes are over, again ask each group to leave its 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. You have three minutes.”
Note: Provide another example for the same flip chart as before. For example, what if you got five friends to help you clean
your yard on Monday then all of you cleaned the yard of another friend in your group on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday?
- When three minutes is over, again ask groups to leave their papers 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 ring 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. Ask some of the following discussion questions
to help participants get the most out of the activity:
Which situations were the most difficult to think creatively about?
What are some advantages of being as outrageous (extremely unusual, unconventional,
extravagant) as possible?
To what degree did your group become more creative as the activity progressed?
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 techniques for being 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?
Note: Step 7 and the discussion questions of the activity “Be Outrageous” are an assessment of Learning Objective 1.
