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.Objectives" To help participants generate as many creative ideas as possible" To help participants learn how to use the activities to generate ideasParticipantsSmall groups of four to seven people eachMaterials, Supplies, and Equipment" For each group: markers, two flip charts, and masking tape for posting flip-chartsheets" For each participant: one sheet each of three different colors of sticking dots(1D 2 diameter) and one pad of 4 x 6 Post-it® NotesHandout" What if.? Handout101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving214TLFeBOOK 07 VG 167-216 10/6/04 12:17 PM Page 215Time30 minutesRelated Activities" Get Crazy [5]" Imaginary Mentor [42]" We Have Met the Problem and It Is We [48]Procedure1.Read the above Background information to the participants.2.Distribute the What if.? Handout, review the example with the participants,and answer any questions they may have.3.Instruct the participants to brainstorm within their groups by saying thefollowing: Stretch your problem in as many ways as you can think of by asking What if.? Assume any-thing is possible.Don t worry about what won t work or why something can t be implemented.Justlet your mind go.Have someone in your group write down all of the What if.? statements on aflip chart. 4.After they are finished writing, say the following: Return to reality and examine each question while thinking, Well, we can t do that, but maybe wecan. Brainstorm ideas by finishing this sentence and generate more practical ideas.Record allyour ideas individually on Post-it® Notes and place them on flip-chart paper. Debrief/DiscussionWhat if.? is one of the simplest, yet most powerful, activities available.It is often over-looked, however, because it is so simple.If participants truly suspend belief during thisexercise, the results can be outstanding.Ask participants how they think this approachcompares with more traditional brainstorming activities and why.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?Free Association Activities: Blue Skies 215TLFeBOOK 07 VG 167-216 10/6/04 12:17 PM Page 216What if.? HandoutWhat if you were a car dealer who wanted to increase repeat business? To think of ideas,you might begin Whatiffing as follows:" What if I gave repeat customers a free car?" What if prospective repeat customers had to beg to let me sell them a new car?" What if prospective repeat customers tried to pay double the price for a new car?" What if a customer s current car hypnotized the customer into buying another car?" What if new cars followed people around town until the people bought them?Next, use these questions as idea triggers.Here are some sample ideas:" I can t give repeat customers a free car, but I could give them a substantial discount." I can t get repeat customers to beg me to sell them a new car, but I could contact cus-tomers on a regular basis to see if they have any problems.Such constant attentionmay encourage repeat sales." I can t double the price for a new car, but I could offer to pay customers double thedifference of any better car deal they can get from another dealer." A customer s car won t hypnotize the customer into buying another car, but I couldmount a relentless advertising campaign using all media." New cars won t follow customers around, but I could offer repeat customers free useof a cellular car phone for one year.101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &Sons, Inc.Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley.www.pfeiffer.com101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving216TLFeBOOK 08 VG 217-244b 10/5/04 5:00 PM Page 217LLLLChapter 8Grab Bag: Miscellaneous Activitiespen the bag.Now reach right in and help yourself.Grab whatever you find.Don t beOshy; take a risk and see what you get.You ll never know if you don t try.A grab bag can t be beat when it comes to surprises.You never know what you regoing to get.That also is true of this chapter.You don t know what you re going to getbecause this chapter contains miscellaneous activities.Grab bag activities actually involve two different types of idea stimulators.The firsttype, backward, includes activities that involve reversing or turning around a problemin some way.The second, just alike only different, contains activities based on analogi-cal thinking; that is, they generate ideas by focusing on similarities between a problemand something else.Because these two types force us to look at our problems differently, these activitiesare especially useful for creating unique perspectives.Thus, the activities in this chapterpossess considerable diversity in their approaches to generating ideas.NOTE: FOR ALL ACTIVITIES, REMIND PARTICIPANTSTO DEFER JUDGMENT WHILE GENERATING IDEAS. Backward Activities: ReversalsBackward activities stimulate your brain by forcing you to reverse problem aspects andview things differently.This opposite tactic is not what most people expect to use whengenerating ideas.The typical reaction is to plunge right in and attack a problem by gener-ating solutions definitely a direct approach.The point is, however, that reversals avoid the tendency to lock in on just one way ofviewing a problem.Divergent, creative thinking requires many problem viewpoints.217TLFeBOOK 08 VG 217-244b 10/5/04 5:00 PM Page 21850Law BreakerBackgroundJust as most societies have laws, so do most problems.Societallaws prescribe and govern social behavior.Similarly, problemlaws govern the assumptions people use to perceive and defineproblems.Our assumptions about the way we think things should beinfluence the way we generate ideas to solve problems.Unfortu-nately, most of these shoulds constrain our thinking and resultin less creative ideas.Moreover, shoulds limit the number ofsolution categories we might consider.For instance, if we acceptthe notion that chocolate candy should be sold only in bars, allour ideas for chocolate candy will be based on bar products
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