Page 59 - The Creative Training Idea Book Inspired Tips and Techniques for Engaging and Effective Learning

lucas chap 02 11/20/02 11:37 AM Page 48
48 The Creative Training Idea Book
BRIGHT I DEA
Adding a Spark to Training
o increase your creativity quotient, make a promise to yourself that each time
Tyou prepare a session, you will change at least one activity and the way that you
will identify and group leaders and volunteers. This will cause you to think and add
variety for you and will also potentially engage participants.

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
—Martin H. Fischer

It is important to remember that creativity is a process by which you identify new
ideas. You do so most effectively by examining each element from various perspectives.
This can be accomplished using any of the strategies found in this chapter, or through
use of similar ones. To better understand how the creativity process works, look at a road
map. Find any two major cities that are geographically located near one another. Note
that there is likely a main highway (similar to a program objective) that connects the
two cities, however, there are probably many smaller roads (strategies or techniques)
that branch and ultimately lead from one city to the other. To apply this metaphor to
your training, select any program that you currently design and deliver. Next, on a
sheet of paper, list as many alternative techniques and activities for accomplishing ses-
sion objectives as you can. Now, take a “side road” by selecting any alternative from your
list to substitute for one that you currently use. The result will be that your session ob-
jectives will be met while you take a different route or add variety and creativity to your
training.

PUTTING YOUR BRAIN TO WORK: ACTIVITY

To practice viewing items from a different perspective, take a look at Figure 2-1. Take a few minutes and
attempt to determine how many squares there are in the image.
How many did you find? The solution is in the Tools for Trainers section of the appendices. If you are
like most people, you started with the obvious ones. However, to find all of them, you had to go deeper
into the image, as if you were peeling back an onion. When you did, you likely started making larger
combinations of boxes to form more squares.
Similar to many of the issues that you and your participants encounter in your training, this figure
illustrates the value of not making assumptions or approaching a situation from the “normal” perspective.
This latter concept is a key element in creative thinking and in your ability to add pizzazz to your training
sessions.