THINKING OUT OF THE BAG”

Activity (45 min.)

1. Ask the participants to sit in one large circle.

2. Walk around the circle, holding the paper “grab bag” filled with objects. Ask each participant, one at a time, to take an object from the grab bag, without looking in the bag. (3 min.)

3. Ask the participants to think quietly for a moment about how the object they have personifies the work challenge identified in the previous brainstorming activity. (2 min.)

4. Ask each participant to share their thoughts with the group about how their objects represent the group challenge. You can either go around the circle “Round Robin” style with each participant speaking in turn, or ask people to speak in any order, until all have spoken. (10 min.)

5. Ask the participants to move around room, trading objects with each other as music plays, until the music stops or until the facilitator says, “stop.” (3 min.)

6. Have the participants sit back down in the circle, holding their new object. Ask them each to think quietly for a moment about how this object represents a possible solution to the challenge identified by the group. (2 min.)

7. Ask each participant in the circle share his or her thoughts with the group about how these objects represent solutions to the group challenge. (10 min.)

8. Engage the participants in a full group discussion: (15 min.)

a. How did the use of objects help you to think outside the box? Were you able to come up with ideas for dealing with this challenge that you would not have thought of otherwise?

b. Although you each had a different object in the second round, as a group they were still the same objects. What changed to make these objects represent solutions, instead of problems? (Answer: Only the participants’ perception of the objects changed!)

c. What ideas did you get as a result of this exercise that you can actually implement in your work to address the challenge you identified?

d. How can you look at challenges in the future in a way that helps you to see opportunities and solutions, instead of problems?

e. How can you draw on your personal and professional strengths that you identified in your creativity success stories, when dealing with future work challenges?

f. How could you use this creative thinking exercise in your daily work to deal with potential challenges?

Forms: No handouts needed for this activity.