- Ask one person from each group to share his or her best ideas verbally with the
large group. - Encourage any of the participants, including those in other groups, to use each
idea verbalized as a stimulus to think of an improvement or new idea. If anyone
does think of an improvement or new idea, have the person write it down on a
Post-it Note. - After all the groups have reported, instruct each group to tape their designated
sheets of flip-chart paper on the “BEST IDEAS” and “OTHER IDEAS” walls. - Tell all participants to place any new ideas generated from the idea sharing on a
sheet of flip-chart paper on the “NEW IDEAS” wall. If the sharing sparked any
new ideas, whoever thought of the idea should write it on a note and place it on
the appropriate wall. - Have the groups repeat steps 4 through 9 until all activities have been completed
and all ideas separated and place on the designated walls. - Instruct the participants to pick up a sheet of green dots and vote for their favorite
ideas on any three of the walls with posted ideas. This way, all of the ideas can be
considered. (If time is short, you might have them focus just on the “best” ideas.) - Tell them they can use the number of green dots that represent 5 percent of the
total number of ideas. Thus, if there are 200 total ideas, they could use ten green
dots. Note that they should place the dots in a way so as to not obscure the view
of the idea. - Caution them to vote for the ideas they think are best and to try not to be influ-
enced by how many dots an idea already has received. - As an option, tell them that they may not place more than two (or whatever num-
ber seems appropriate to you) dots on a single idea. - When all of the green dots have been placed, tell the participants to vote on the
best of the “green ideas” by using the blue dots and vote with approximately 5
percent of the total of “green ideas” receiving dots. Thus, if there were thirty par-
ticipants and they used their green dots to vote for eighty ideas, you would tell
them that they may use four blue dots to vote for the best “green ideas.” - Ask the participants if they are satisfied with the outcome or if they would like to
discuss the votes or vote a third time. If they are satisfied, you can end the session;
if they want to discuss the votes, conduct a discussion and decide whether to ter-
minate or continue the evaluation process.
Before you begin training using any of the activities in this book, you might want to
consider an idea generation warm-up exercise. It can help break the ice and prepare the
participants to engage in some freewheeling thinking.Getting Ready: Different Uses Warm-Up Exercise
Here’s an exercise to help individuals and groups stretch their thinking muscles:30 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving
03 VG 21-31 10/5/04 4:29 PM Page 30