Activity Overview

This activity establishes the power of brainstorming. It can be used as training for project leaders, creativity training, and to accelerate getting new solutions. The activity is helpful for all levels and types of participants.

Objectives

Step By Step Instructions

1. Start by showing the group a large paperclip. Ask the participants to write down within 5 minutes ( or 3 or 2) as many uses as possible for a paperclip.
2. After the time has lapsed ask the group which person has the most uses on their paper. Note down the number of possible uses the person with the longest list has mentioned.
3. After that ask the first person of the group to mention their first use. Ask the rest of the group to delete the item ( if they have the same ) on their paper. Ask the second, and so on. Beware, everybody has to mention one item at the time,
4. The facilitator writes down every possible use mentioned, without discussion. When all possible uses are mentioned the facilitator counts all the items which are written down on the whiteboard.
5. Note to the group that there are many more items on the whiteboard than the person with the longest individual list had.
6. After that, you will always get remarks about the issues. People will say that use 1 looks a lot like use 9, for example. This is a good bridge: you can say that we should not start a brainstorm with pre-discrimination or clustering but that the clustering will be done following the brainstorm.
7. After that and with this activity in mind, participants will be better able to do a brainstorm about any issue you need a brainstorm for because it is proven that brainstorming can work.
8. Success is evaluated by indicating on the whiteboard that the group has a larger number of the possible uses of a paperclip than any one person can think of.

Activity Review

Follow up with a brainstorm on a topic that is real for the group to build on the learning.