Creativity Exercises

Or, how to give your right-brain a kick in the pants.

Tim Stellmach, Instructor

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What is a Creativity Exercise?

For our purposes, anything that changes your way of thinking about a problem (or opportunity) Especially techniques to cultivate new ideas Applicable at any stage of the process.

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What is That Good For?

Analysis is not a very good means of generating ideas. Intuition is, by definition, not responsive to systemization. What cannot be commanded might still be coaxed.

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Things You May Already Do

Many activities change what parts of your brain are working, and encourage other parts to relax. Identifying these triggers and exploiting them on purpose can be powerful. Not usually a great thing for groups, though.

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Things You May Already Do

Examples: Exercise Change of scenery Driving Showering Toys Sleep Music
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Six Thinking Hats

Edward de Bono

Knowledge possessed or needed

Type of thinking being used

Risks, drawbacks, criticism

Opportunities, possibilities, alternatives

Advantages, benefits
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Feelings, intuition

Effective Brainstorming
The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas. Linus Pauling

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Tips for Better Brainstorming

Tom Kelley, The Art of Innovation

Sharpen the Focus Playful Rules Number Your Ideas Build and Jump The Space Remembers Stretch your Mental Muscles Get Physical
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The Least You Need to Know: A Simple Brainstorming Format

Present a clear statement of the problem at hand. Everybody gets enough Post-It notes for more than the obvious answers. Go! (stretch, number counts) Put the notes on the wall. Everybody move them about putting like with like (get physical, use spatial memory).
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The Least You Need to Know: A Simple Brainstorming Format

Sift (build and jump): Which ideas are very common, which rare or unique? What does that mean? Does what that means suggest new ideas? What are the combinations, gaps, intermediaries, or components?

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Randomization Exercises
Select a theme, element, or piece of advice from some random source. Get you past a blank slate. Encourage very unexpected thought patterns

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Randomization Methods
Possible sources: Dictionary Card Draw (e.g. Creative Whack Pack, Oblique Strategies) I Ching (or Ouija Board) Boggle
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Example: Oblique Strategies

Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt

Tidy Up

What mistakes did you make last time?

Go outside. Shut the door.

Look at the most embarrassing details and amplify them.

What would your closest friend do?

Try an old idea.

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Exercise: The Epigrams of Heraclitus

Heraclitus was an Ionian philosopher of the late 6th century B.C. This is great because his stuff is way out of copyright. His epigrams make a pretty good oblique strategies type deck Idea copped from Roger Von Oech. For his translations, you want Expect the Unexpected or You Wont Find It.
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Go!
Break up into groups. If others in your Three Musketeers group are here, you probably want them at your table. Start by posing questions or issues. Pretend to trust and believe an epigram. What does it mean? Repeat.
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