By | Sridhar Ramanathan
We keep asking people to think differently. Share new ideas. Add new perspectives. If they turn around and ask “How?” we often don’t have an answer.
Twenty one years ago when I started my life as a facilitator I realised that this was a missing piece. I used to admire the way Roger Von Oech had put together his Creative Whack Pack and Innovative Whack Pack. Then there was the IDEO Method Cards. And THINKPAK by Michael Michalko.
Inspired, I created a pack of cards with words and interesting visuals. It worked well but was not attractive enough. It was in black & white.
I then worked with my designer friend Sachin Hadavale who helped me create the Creative Block Busting Tool Kit.
We have a set of 27 question cards – which help you define a challenge in any given situation. Of course you would need the assistance of a facilitator to do this well.
We invite participants to share their first set of ideas. All ideas are written down on Post-It slips. Each participant writes his initials and a serial number on the post it. (RS 1, RS 2, RS 3 etc.)
We then use a technique called Ignition Spark. It has 1000 active verbs. You open any page randomly, pick any verb randomly and capture every idea you get. If one active verb does not work, dump it. Choose another. You have 999 other active verbs to choose from.
Then you have 27 Picture Cards. 27 Colour Cards. 27 cards with words and phrases.
You also have booklet called Jolt. It has 70 Provocative questions that makes you think differently.
