15 great creativity activities

15 great creativity activities(Not the nine-dot problem again!)

Dr. Ricardo Sosa <[email protected]>

1. Routine is o.k.

The very first question you need to ask yourself or your team is “what must be left the same?”

(This will let you focus on what really needs to be changed)


2. Permission

Avoid intuition, transcend deduction/induction, understand then break the rules, do not expect inspiration, step over

boundaries, be foolish, embrace ambiguity, pick a fight, make mistakes, work hard… give yourself and others permission!


3. Metaphors

Grab today’s newspaper and find 3 metaphors. Most go unnoticed, so pay attention. Then build yourself 3 metaphors about your problem. You will know that this works when your

analogies help you reframe your problem.


4. Randomness

Use randomness to go beyond intuition and commonsense. You may grab words at random from a newspaper and do

something interesting like use them to rephrase your problem or the company’s vision.

Build a random list of words and use them as triggers.


5. Paradoxes

A paradox is an apparently contradictory statement that leads to a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition. They are a

great way to twist your thinking about the problem at hand. Discuss famous paradoxes, then find a paradoxical aspect of

your problem or company


6. Thesaurus

Words are powerful, polysemous, have rich connections and unexpected connotations when combined or modified. Use a

thesaurus to redefine your problem.


7. Try out ideas

Paper and pencil are great to imagine ideas, but they are terrible liars. Leave your desk and try out your ideas: ask and observe people, build models, run quick implementations. If

you do this right, your idea will necessarily change.


8. Say stupid things

Once in a while, warn people that the next thing you will say is “really stupid”, then go ahead and say what you really think.

This little trick has a few effects: it removes pressure, gives you license to say anything, disrupts commonsense, and possibly can be analysed later for its actual merit or can be combined

with other ideas.


9. Mix

Combine half-baked* ideas, join different trains of thought*. Bring together concepts from distant fields. If your

brainstorming session seems like a competition, end it. If it feels like a jigsaw puzzle where the picture emerges from the

contribution of everyone, you are on the right track.


* Here are some metaphors for free

10. Talk to strangers

Find strangers to discuss your problem: literally, people you don’t know, or people from different fields, young children,

minorities, etc. Look for people who are willing to build analogies to their expertise and ask them to rephrase your

problem in their own terms –listen carefully.


11. Cultivate diversity

Apply this in your team: include different profiles (sp. academic disciplines or professions). Apply it in your life: become

interested in a wide range of things, learn languages, travel, read. Pick up a magazine you’ve never opened and read it

carefully to learn one new thing about your problem.


12. Pursue counter-intuition

Avoid choosing “consensus” ideas, go for the controversial or those dismissed quickly. Pick them up and analyse their worth:

it’s there, it’s just probably not easy to grasp.


13. Sacrifice a sacred cow

Select the most “sacred” idea around the problem or the company. Then question it, trash it, reverse it, dismiss it. This works when it reveals an insight about the problem. Usually

sacred beliefs made sense in the past but conditions change.


14. Never become an expert

Experience is valuable, except when you trust it. Always question previous experiences and never, ever, think of

yourself as an expert. Experts believe they shouldn’t learn anything, and believe me… we are all ignorant!


15. Avoid creativity books

Or websites, or experts. Become creative about your own creativity. Adapt techniques to your context, better yet invent

new ones that work for you.


Take away: ideas aren’t people

It’s o.k. to kill ideas. Never fall in love with them: use them.


15 great creativity activities

Education