Description

This activity is designed to help people discover what is stopping or slowing down the process of creative problem solving within a group.

Situations

This activity is useful when a group has been working together on another activity or in a work or group situation and finds itself either continually blocked on decision making or suddenly blocked on a particular decision.

Objectives

Trainer Guidance

In this activity you must initially help the participants generate a list of blocks and then work with them to create possible ways through those blocks. You may want to come up with your own list of blocks beforehand so that you can help the discussion.

Time

45 minutes

Materials

• Flipchart or black/white board
• Markers
• Paper and pencils 

  5 Blocks to Creative Thinking (concluded)

  
  Method

1. Divide participants into pairs. Each pair is asked to come up with a list of possible blocks to creative problem solving with particular focus on the issue at hand.
2. Review the lists, writing up the results on a flipchart.
3. Encourage the participants as a group to create their own possible solutions to each block.

Summary
Review the activity in terms of its own creativity. The brainstorming that goes on to create the lists and to create the solutions needs to be credited as part of the successful creative problem solving process. In addition, any ideas that are created as ways of dealing with a block should be tried out as soon as possible to keep the impetus going.