Want to Develop Creative Thinking? The Answer Is...

Creative thinking comes naturally to some of us, but for others it takes practice and structure. The Answer Is… strategy is easy to integrate into any class to get your participants thinking “out of the box.” To boost brain safety, have participants answer your prompts anonymously. 
 
How To: 
1. Show The Answer Is...  slide to your group and provide a few seconds of think time. 
             The Answer Is… A Square. What is the question?
2. Reveal each of these possible answers one at a time

• What is a four-sided shape with right angles?
• What was an old-fashioned, boring person called in the 1960s?
• What shape is used in the game of hopscotch?
• What shape are brownies?

3. Show a slide prompt related to your content. Choose a topic for which you’d like to get some creative thinking. For example, in a course on customer service, you might use “The Answer is…Memorable.”
4. Provide 30 seconds for everyone to generate a question and write it on a sticky note. Ask them to bring their sticky notes up to a board or wall space. 
5. Read the questions aloud anonymously and choose several for further, in-depth discussion with the group.
 
Virtual Variation

• Post a slide that contains your prompt and ask everyone to chat in a question. If your platform has a voting option, ask participants to vote for questions to discuss in further depth. 

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