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Lighting the Creativity Lamp 61
cesses. Monopoly®, chess, checkers, pick up sticks, Chinese checkers, Throw ’n Go Jenga®,
Scrabble®, bridge, or similar games can help develop and enhance skills, such as prob-
lem-solving, decision-making, strategic planning, and interpersonal communication.
You can use or modify many popular games to address virtually any topic. For ex-
ample, if you supervise new employee orientation for your organization, you can create
an end of the day review of material covered by creating a variation of Jeopardy® in
which game board headings are key areas covered in your material (e.g., Employee
Benefits, Policies and Procedures, Organizational History or structure, Products and
Services, and so on). Divide participants into teams, rather than having individual con-
testants, and have them line up behind one of three different colored lights on a light
table that you create or buy. As the game show host or hostess, you ask the questions
and coordinate the game just as it is done on television. Once one category is selected
and the answer either given or missed, the first three contestants move to the end of the
line and the next three come up. You can add more fun and realism by dressing in a
tuxedo or evening gown, rewarding participants with small gifts with the organizational
logo on them, and using the actual Jeopardy® theme song (see Chapter 5 for infor-
mation about using copyrighted music in training). Using a game format adds fun and
reinforces what can sometimes be a boring day and topic.

BRIGHT I DEA
Using a Game to Review
ere is another example of how a game might be incorporated into your
®
Hprogram to review material at the end of the session. Use Scrabble or a
similar word game as a basis for reinforcing program concepts. Form groups of
®
six to eight participants and give each a Scrabble game set, flip chart, and
markers. Designate a timekeeper, leader/scribe (see Chapter 6). Set a 30-minute
time limit and tell the groups to begin playing using the standard rules except
that they may only use terms related to the session content. Have the leader/
scribe watch the time and record each term identified on the flip chart (position
flip charts so that one group cannot see another’s responses). Each person within
a group has up to 1 minute to either form a word or pass to the next player. After
30 minutes, call time and have each group display its list as someone in that
group explains the term in relation to what was covered during the session. You
can add competition and fun by rewarding the group with the most correct terms.
Disqualify any incorrect terms or items that were not covered in the session and
add key concepts missed. If you desire, you can reward any really creative ideas
related to the topic even though they were not part of material covered.