1. 15 great creativity activities
(Not the nine-dot problem again!)
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
2. 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)
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
3. 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!
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
4. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
5. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
6. 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
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
7. 6. Thesaurus
Words are powerful, polysemous, have rich connections and
unexpected connotations when combined or modified. Use a
thesaurus to redefine your problem.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
8. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
9. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
10. 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
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
11. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
12. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
13. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
14. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
15. 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!
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
16. 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.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>
17. Take away: ideas aren’t people
It’s o.k. to kill ideas. Never fall in love with them: use them.
Dr. Ricardo Sosa <sosa.ricardo@gmail.com>