101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &

Sons, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. http://www.pfeiffer.com

Suggest that participants conduct a discussion on the benefits of using experts versus

non-experts, including situations in which either or both would be most beneficial and

when they might be unproductive or counterproductive. Also consider having partici-

pants 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

• If consulting an expert is not feasible, have the participants consult several people
  with absolutely no knowledge of your problem and take written notes. They can be
  friends, co-workers, spouses, or even children. Have them do this prior to the meet-
  ing. (Such people can bring a fresh perspective to the problem. Unfettered by disci-
  pline-bound assumptions and logic, they can often see things we cannot. Not only are
  they more removed from the problem, but also they are more likely to avoid precon-
  ceptions. So ask them how they would solve the problem.)


• Repeat Steps 2 through 6 in the procedure above.


• If experts are available, have the groups consult them as well as non-experts and use
  those responses with Steps 2 through 6.

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