Brain Stretch
This exercise is inspired by Bruce Springsteen. He famously sang ‘you can’t start a fire without a spark’.
Many people start creative thinking exercises by starting with nothing. This might be a blank page or blank screen. However the opposite is true.
We always need to stretch our brain before we get to thinking. So we need to generate our sparks.
DO THIS EXERCISE AS A GROUP
All agree on something you want an idea for. It might be for a marketing campaign, or an on-air feature, or something completely different. It is entirely your choice! But make it specific like….
“We want an idea for a promotion”
OR
“We want an idea for a Marketing Campaign”
NEXT…
Once you have chosen your one topic as a group, each person say 1 different word that relates to that topic.
There are no right or wrong answers. This is to help you provide a starting point for creative thinking.
You now have different starting points to undertake divergent thinking.
SOMEONE IN THE GROUP WRITE DOWN ALL THE WORDS
Idea Lift
Like all musicians, Lady Gaga relies on musicians who came before her to inspire her creativity.
We often put pressure on ourselves to create something ‘new’ when we are really trying to create something ‘original’.
Everything was original once, and now we can use someone else’s original thinking and apply it to the idea we want to create.
DO THIS EXERCISE AS A GROUP
With your chosen topic from the previous exercise, ask yourself this question: ‘What would (insert person) do to solve this challenge?’.
You can choose from any person or any other brand. A good example is to say ‘What would Apple do?’ or ‘What would Richard Branson do?’.
It doesn’t matter who you choose, but the exercise is designed to help you lift the ideas of someone else into your head.
Quick Draw
This exercise is inspired by Walt Disney.
When we were children our first creative exercise is usually drawing pictures. As we become adults we forget how important this practice is to creative thinking.
We often write out our ideas or solutions, when drawing them first is a great way to start.
DO THIS EXERCISE ON YOUR OWN
With your chosen topic from the previous exercise, spend a few minutes drawing. It doesn’t matter if you are scribbling or doodling - it just needs to be drawing and not writing words.
Eyelid Pulldown
This exercise is inspired by Frida Kahlo, who spent months confined to her bed after an accident.
She used to spend a lot of time visualising her work before she started painting.
One of the easiest and basic creative exercises is visualisation.
Often when we are trying to think of an idea we spend time looking up or out of a window waiting for inspiration to strike.
An alternative to that is to close your eyes for 2 minutes and visualise your problem. What do you see? What colours are present in your visualisation? What words or phrases appear to you?
DO THIS EXERCISE ON YOUR OWN
Once you’ve done 2 minutes of the eyelid pulldown, describe what you saw to the others in your group.
Cross fit
This exercise is inspired by David Bowie.
In his songwriting, Bowie would often cut out random words and sentences from newspapers and magazines.
He did this to try and create random patterns and connections - which is critical to make original work.
Taking elements that already exist - such as words - and making them fit together in a random way is where true originality can be found.
DO THIS EXERCISE ON YOUR OWN
Go back to the words you had as part of Exercise 1.
Next to each word write 1 random word.
So your list should look something like this…
Morning / Banana
Show / Sunshine
Traffic / Rocket
Celebrity / Party
Host / Coffee
Podcast / Playtime
Studio / Stars
Microphone / Bus
Team / Kitchen
Personality / Game
The technique will help you kickstart your creative thinking by providing some unusual random words that don’t usually fit together.
From here you can think about what those word combinations could mean when put together and you can generate your idea.