More Warm up Exercises

"Do you know me?"

Each person is given a nametag and an index card. The name tag has the name of another person in the group on it. Everyone is told to circulate, meet, mix and mingle to gather information, insights or stories about the person on their tag from group members. The opening line "Do you know me?" is used to help generate clues and conversation. The index card is to be used to write down the information collected. At the end of a designated time - about 15 minutes, each participant introduces their "name tag" and its person to the group.



A brand called me!

Each person is given a blank name tag. Explain to the group that corporations are recognized by a specific logo or symbol. (McDonalds arches, Apple Computer's Apple, etc.) They are given 2 minutes to draw their personal logo. This logo should reflect their personality, their interests, major or any thing they would like other people to know about them. Then give the group time to mingle and see what each others logo looks like. When it looks like the entire group has mixed, instruct everybody with a similar logo to form a small group. You may be surprised at how many similarities there are in your group.

Color Jacuzzi:

The object of this small group exercise is to get the group to quickly meet the other members. The facilitator calls out a color of the rainbow: - for example RED:

Red typically is the stop/turn- off color - so each member of the group quickly tells what is the one thing (that they can disclose in public) that is really a turn off to them .

Orange: is the motivation color - what motivates them

Yellow: is the inspiration or creativity color - what was the best idea they've had

Green: is the money color - what they plan to do for money, or the dumbest thing they ever did for money.

Blue: is the sky's the limit color - what is your favorite fantasy about your future

Indigo: is an odd, or different color - what is the most daring thing they ever did.

Purple: is the color of royalty - if you were ruler of the universe for a day - what is the first thing you would do?

What If.....? An exercise in Creativity and What Iff'ing

What if we could see smells? You'd know the source of the bad smell in the kitchen--a plant, rubbish bin, wastebasket, old food in the refrigerator. You could see the perfume as it wafted off the girl wearing it--a visible "come on." Since we can see farther than we can smell, you could see who had an orange or banana in his lunch bag from across the room. Visible odors could be socially embarrassing in ways not necessary to detail.

Whether or not the "seeing smells" thought suggests the invention of an smell detecting device, a super sniffer like the ones used by the U.S. military to sniff out enemy soldiers, a main benefit of practicing what-iffing is to train the mind to explore unreality or imagined reality, to think about, for a few minutes, the necessary, logical consequences or facts needed to support such a change in real things. Too often when someone gets a new idea, little attempt is made to think about its logical consequences for a few minutes.

Notice when you mention a "what if" to your friends, their reaction will probably be to laugh and change the subject, or to laugh and suggest one funny consequence. There is little attempt to trace probable consequences thoroughly, to outline a full set of associated realities. By not doing so, we are in danger of cutting off many new ideas.

Try It Yourself

What If.

Choose one of the questions below and then trace the reasonable and logical consequences that would follow. You might be sure to think of both good and bad (and perhaps indifferent) consequences. List or describe (in a sentence or two each) at least ten consequences.
What if anyone could set up as a doctor?
What if each home could run the television only one hour a day?
What if petrol grew on trees and was a renewable resource?
What if exams were abolished in college?
What if our pets could talk?
What if we never had to sleep?
What if we could read other people's minds (and they could read ours)?
What if all marriages were automatically cancelled by the state every three years?
What if everybody looked almost exactly alike?
What if clocks and watches didn't exist and daylight lasted six months?

Be more creative, USES FOR A...

This is a simple technique that can be used for mental stimulation or practical application, depending on what you have in mind at the time. It is an excellent tool for breaking you out of a functionally fixated mindset. To use this technique, think of an item or object, usually a common one like a brick, toothpick, pencil, or bucket, and set the task of thinking of all the possible uses for that object, without regard to what the object is normally used for, what it is named, or how it is usually thought of.
Sometimes a time limit, like three to five minutes, is given. Other times a quantity limit, like 25 to 100 is given. All the techniques of idea generation are used, from checklist to attribute analysis to random stimulation.

Try It Yourself

Uses For.
Choose one of the items below and think of at least 25 original uses for it. (That is, you cannot list things that the item is already used for.) The uses can be fanciful, but should at least approach practicality. Describe each use in a sentence or two.

a cardboard box
a towel
a nail
a sheet of paper
a spoon
a fan
a roll of adding machine paper
a ball point pen
the yellow pages
an inner tube
a candle
three feet of Scotch tape
a plastic drinking glass
a toothpick
a marble
old newspapers
worn out automobile tyres
non-returnable soda bottles
tons of broken rubber bands
pencils

6 word memoirs - which is your favourite?

This one really is relevant for me!
The Guardian has been running this competition to see who's six word memoir has the most resonance...which is your favourite? Here's the shortlist of the final 7 Take a look here You can find all of them here.

Creativity is...

If you got the bug from the previous post...

...here's a simple mind-mapping course!

Tony Buzan - In search of genius through mind-mapping

If you don't yet use mind-mapping to help you with creativity, lateral thinking, problem solving, planning and organising your life, take a look at this. Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind-mapping takes 6 difficult children in a problem school - see what happens at the end of 6 months....

Is it just a guitar? Use your creativity...what else could it be...

Everyone looks at things in a different way. Try this exercise and see what you (and perhaps your friends) come up with.
Print off this image and make it into something else.

I got this evercise from an interesting blog
before and after, if you want some inspiration before you start, take a look at what the guitar shape turned into!

If you want to send me your examples so that I can post them up, email me at sue.alouche@orange.fr

A short Creativity Exercise - What could you access from a cashpoint?

Image coutesey of www.legaljuice.com

What other things could you access from a cashpoint machine? We go there so many times to get money, couldn't we get other things too?

But be practical, consider size, security, practicality. I bet you'll have 10 ideas in 10 minutes!

Adapted from an exercise from Caffeine for the mind

Why not add your ideas as comments to this post...

Fun Ice Breaker

Need to energise your meeting? Having a team building meeting? Need to add small snaps of creativite to a workshop?
This is just the exercise for you! This is more suitable for small groups of say 5 or 6 people

Icebreaker Game - If I were a...
A fun icebreaker game to encourage creativity, best for smaller groups.
Ask each person to say what they would be and why, if they were a...
• A piece of fruit
• An historical figure
• A household object
• A cartoon character
• Any other off the wall group you can think of!
I would be a pineapple as I am exotic, sweet and zingy.
I would be a whisk as I like to stir things up.
I would be Taz as I rush around like a crazy creature!
Time to allow for this activity 20 mins

IceBreaker Game...

This ice breaker game is best for 10 or so people.

Bring 5 random items to the meeting and place them in the centre of the group.

Each person is encouraged to come up with an alternative use for the item, or to
come up with a phrase associated with the item.

Item ideas; toy dog, cardboard box, chair, wooden spoon, picture, scarf or anything
else around the home or office.

Creative uses; e.g. use cardboard box as handbag,
Have a few ideas prepared to start the game off.

Brainstorming Activity 1 – Night and Day

Busy people need routines and shortcuts to make it through the day. If we had to
consciously think about the steps involved in making a cup of tea, we’d have
exhausting our thinking energy before we’d even left the house in the morning.
Routine thinking may save time and energy, but seriously hampers creative
brainstorming, so use this exercise to challenge traditional thoughts and encourage
creativity.

Make a list of common words e.g. night, smart, heavy, quick, apple. Get your team
to list the first opposite meaning word that springs to mind e.g. day, stupid, light,
slow, pear. This will flush out the obvious, routine words. Challenge your team to
come up with at least 3 further opposite words for each word e.g.

Night = day,sun,white,awake, .....
Smart = stupid, scruffy, shabby, in-elegant, clumsy, gawky

You’ll find some similar meaning words creep into your list – that’s fine as these can
spark further opposite meaning words. Remember ideas breed ideas and to keep
critical, analytical thinking in check. Limit the time spent on this activity to 10-15
minutes, to keep it fresh and focused.

Now it’s time to introduce the “real” brainstorming activity. Write your problem
statement clearly and simply, and let those creative minds go to work on generating
new and non-routine ideas to solve the problem.