Creativity Brain Training Games

The reality is, virtually nothing we do is simple.  We see a lot of things as simple but this is merely because we see most things at a higher level of abstraction.  We take a lot of the small details and do them without thinking.  Or we don't even realise we are doing them.  For the most part, this is great.  It means we can focus on the important and more interesting stuff and not get bogged down in minor and irrelevant details.  But sometimes those details can be a great source of creative inspiration.  Let's put the spotlight on them.

In the title of this article I'm obviously referring to a 4 letter word that many find offensive.  The thing is, the word is just that, a word.  It is only offensive if you choose to take offence to it. And that choice is entirely yours.  But vulgar words like this actually are quite powerful, for instance they can improve your ability to cope with pain.  I'm going to argue today that using 4 letter words, one of them in particular, is powerful in terms of directing creativity and allowing it to flow.

This week we're innovating.

Game:  There is 1 random word below.  It is the starting word.  Your aim is to take the word from the previous commenter and suggest another word that could benefit from it and what that benefit is.  It must be a creative improvement.  That is, it cannot be obvious.

• flowerpot

Have you heard about the 5 W's of journalism?  How about the 5 R's of learning?  Or the 5 M's of management.  This form of boiling a subject down to it's key components is useful and makes them easier to remember.  Creating them is also a good way to really consider a topic and attack it from a variety of perspectives.  This week we're going to create our own.  Sounds easy but it's actually harder than you think if you want to do it well.

As a teacher/ manager/ leader etc,  you often think about how you can inspire creativity in your team.  What if we flip this?  Have you ever wondered what your team can offer to inspire creative thinking in you?  Think of what you could achieve, what everyone could achieve, if your creative ability was amplified.  Consider also, that in you drawing inspiration from them, you are creating an environment in which they too can be more creative.

This week we're calling.

Game:  There are 5 random words below.  Use one of them as inspiration for a creative bingo number call.  You can use the word directly or something related to it. (The numbers go from 1 - 75)  Don't say what number your bingo call is for.  Let others see if they can guess.  See below for an explanation of what a bingo call is.

• policeman
• concrete
• eagle
• search
• dice

The world around us is a complex network of interractions.  Nothing is ever really as simple as just A interracts with B.  The interraction will inevitably involve various other elements as well.  Some of these will be known but many of them may not be obvious to us.  When creating something, or solving a problem we tend to think only about A and B but it's the interractions outside of that that often lead to the more interesting and creative ideas.  This weeks challenge gets us to think a little broader in our view of the world.

Before we get started you need to pick a topic.  It could be your favourite sport, a problem you are trying to solve, a particular question or topic that interests you or anything else really.

The world as we see it is exactly that.  The world as WE see it.  It is a unique interpretation based upon how our senses have been stimulated and how our mind has chosen to construct those signals into a model of what is out there.  But this is a hard concept for many to grasp.  Our own internal model of the world is all we have, we have nothing to compare it to and we have been experiencing it our entire lives.  Understanding the models that others have created is a powerful way to seek creative inspiration.  But how do we do it?

This week we're seeing in vivid colour.

Game:  There are 5 random words below.  Your aim is to suggest how one of the words is related to the previous commenters word based upon a particular colour (which again must be a different colour than that used by the previous commenter) (The first person to start get's to choose two words).

• corn
• roof
• ghost
• brick
• snail

I recently spent just over a week on holiday in Fiji.  Despite all the places we were staying offering wireless internet I decided to go technology free.  No internet, no email, no computers of any sort.  It was a bit daunting at first but I soon realised I could live quite happily without these devices of distraction.  It was refreshingly liberating.  Our challenge this week is along similar lines.

Something that has been big in business over the last few years has been viral marketing.  Viral marketing is when you create something that people want to share.  Contained within that thing is a message about your product or service.  The more people share it, the more it spreads, and the more people share it.  It has been used very successfully by business but I think it can be used even more successfully for the general benefit of society.  I would like to propose Viral Creativity.