Page 62 - The Creative Training Idea Book Inspired Tips and Techniques for Engaging and Effective Learning

lucas chap 02 11/20/02 11:37 AM Page 51

FIGURE 2-2. What is it? Lighting the Creativity Lamp 51

SOLUTION = IDEA

CREATIVE DECISION-MAKING TECHNIQUES

Although you cannot get inside the heads of your participants and come up with creative
ideas for them, you can help ignite their creative spark by using various strategies to
encourage participants to think and examine issues and problems from different per-
spectives. Doing so can often stimulate thoughts in the minds of your learners while
encouraging active involvement during training. By teaching and using creative problem-
solving techniques such as the Squares activity regularly, you can encourage involvement
and participant application of concepts learned while keeping your own mind actively
engaged.
Some of the additional common training approaches for teaching creative thinking
and finding solutions include the following.

Graphic Organizers
Visual representations of information can be very useful for organizing and arranging
key elements of any issue, concept, or item. They are especially helpful in reinforcing
learning and increasing memory for visual learners. The introductory page for each chap-
ter of this book shows how simple such a device might be. It replaces what could be a
lengthy linear chapter outline. This is important because, as you remember from Chap-
ter 1, the brain does not easily process information presented in a linear fashion.

Mindmapping

Sometimes referred to as an idea map, mindmapping is a widely used type of graphic
organizer, developed by Tony Buzan for visually displaying information and ideas related
to a central theme or topic such as the one for the content of this chapter (see Figure 2-3).