- If necessary, demonstrate how to fold a paper airplane. If some aren’t able to make
a paper airplane, instruct them to write an idea on a piece of paper and crumple it
into a ball that they then would throw instead. - During an extended idea generation session, tell the participants that whenever
they think of an idea, they should write it on a wing of an airplane and throw the
plane into a designated location (for example, a non-burning fireplace, a box,
wastebasket, or a corner of the room). - At the end of the idea session, distribute the airplanes to the group members and
ask the participants to fly the planes to someone else, all at the same time. - Tell the participants to examine the idea written on an airplane, write down any
improvements or new ideas, and then launch the airplane again. Encourage par-
ticipants to write whatever comes to mind and repeat this process until each par-
ticipant has thrown a plane four or five times. - Tell the groups to collect airplanes, write down the ideas on Post-it®Notes (one
idea per note), and place them on flip charts for evaluation.
Debrief/Discussion
This exercise has proven to be an excellent approach for jump-starting a group and creat-
ing a fun environment conducive to creative thinking. I have used it numerous times in
practice and it always has been well-received because it introduces the “Fun Factor.” Use
it to kick off an idea generation session or when an energy burst is needed. It also works
extremely well when very little time is available since it is a brainwriting variation and
doesn’t require verbal interaction.
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?
Variation
- Instead of having participants arbitrarily write down ideas during a session and fly
them to a designated location, instruct them to fly their planes (with ideas) as the core
part of this exercise. In other words, tell them to write one idea on an airplane and
then fly it to others upon command and then follow Steps 4 to 6.
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