Creativity
Training Exercises and Resources

This creativity exercise is great in getting people to think how an uncommon designed object is used. The exercise can be used in two ways:

• Option 1. Delegates aim to find the primary function of an unusual object. This is much like problem solving. The more unusual the object the better.
• Option 2. Delegates aim to find alternative applications of an object other that those intended by its designer.

You can choose one of the above options based on what you need to train delegates on.

You can use this generic creativity exercise to get people think of unusual solutions to problems. The idea of the exercise is to force delegates to think about alternatives and then compare their ideas with other people. You can run the exercise with no particular recommendation or methodology. However, if you are going through this exercise as part of courses on creativity skills or problem solving, then you can ask the delegates to consider a specific method to come up with alternative solutions using your nominated method such as random stimuli, NAF, SCAMPER, pictorial or other methods.

This exercise helps to stimulate creativity by bringing a variety of random object into consciousness. You can use this exercise during an incubation time between two sessions on problem solving. The exercise helps to make people think of unusual stuff and become conscious of a whole lot of random associations. When they return to the main problem, they end up having more ideas and can connect the new associations with the problem they were considering. This can lead them to potential novel solutions.

A great way to increase creativity is to use random stimuli. Random thoughts can lead to new associations which in turn can help the group to explore new parts of a search space not considered before.

This exercise helps delegates to use readily available modern technology for inspiration from random content and to improve their creative brainstorming.

Research has long shown that visualisation can lead to better recall and learning. As a trainer, you can exploit visualisation to your advantage. One area where visualisation is useful is when recapping on content already covered or at the end of a course. This exercise helps you to take advantage of the power of visualisation.

The visualisation produced in this exercise can also act as a reminder for the delegates and will help to reinforce associations and memory.

Words can sometimes limit creativity. Humans are generally very visual and have evolved to sense the world primarily thorough focused looking and observation. As a result, a large part of the brain is dedicated to visual processing.

To analyse problems we can tap into this huge potential processing power by visualising problems. There have been many studies in this area which has led to exceptionally useful tools such as mind maps which are great for creative thinking.

This exercise helps delegates to express a problem using images. It is much more free flow than mind maps as it is not restricted to any particular method. This allows people to think more visually about a problem and break through the limitations imposed by thinking primarily in words.

Pictorial problem solving is also ideal for brainstorming as it makes it easier to communicate ideas.

When confronted with a problem, sometimes it is useful to approach it from the point of view of someone else. A useful technique is to look at the problem from the point of view of a resourceful celebrity. Charismatic persona, wealth and fame can help to solve problems in novel ways that may otherwise not be considered.

This exercise serves two purposes. It helps delegates to avoid thinking about resource limitation and instead focus on problem solving. It also helps following the mentality of a role model and encourages people to think from the point of view of someone they admire.

You can run this exercise in a number of ways depending on what you want to achieve. See variations for details.

While brainstorming, sometimes people may feel reluctant to voice their ideas especially if they want to raise a concern or highlight a problem. This is particularly common when senior staff or managers are present and no one wants to look bad by saying something negative about their boss’s suggestions. In addition, people generally prefer not to be the messenger of bad news and would rather leave it for someone else to highlight the issue. Unfortunately, this leads to groupthink where people end up agreeing with each other rather than thinking of better alternatives or solutions.

The rolestorming technique proposed by Rick Griggs in 1980s aims to solve this problem by giving an opportunity to participants to adopt different roles while going through the brainstorming session.

In this brainstorming exercise participants take different roles to contribute to the problem solving activity. This allows them to contribute without fear of being laughed at or criticised. The roles are defined by a facilitator prior to the brainstorming session to bias it towards a particular direction.

In this exercise delegates learn about an effective brainstorming technique that aims to take advantage of personal and group creativity. In classic brainstorming sessions, some members might feel too shy or threatened to present their ideas or to challenge bad ideas. Another common problem is group think; the group can end up exploring a particular area for solutions and ignore all others by remaining too focused on the current ideas. The Shifting Technique helps you to systematically avoid these issues.