Countless Obstacles

Countless Obstacles

The aim is to develop solutions for the challenge when it is viewed from different perspectives.

1. The students are asked to imagine that they are eight centimetres in height.  They are given five minutes to reflect on this and are asked to generate solutions for the challenge and note their answers on post-its.
2. The students place their post-its on the whiteboard and explain how they contribute to solving the challenge.
3. The teacher tells the students that they must incorporate the use of a smartphone to create solutions for the challenge.  They should note their ideas and explain how these ideas help solve the challenge. 
4. The students place their post-its on the whiteboard and explain how they contribute to solving the challenge.
5. The teacher explains that the challenge will be turned ‘upside down’ and the students generate ideas for the challenge that are flawed and useless.
6. The students write down their ideas on post-its and place them on the whiteboard.
7. The students review the ideas/solutions to their challenges and identify ones that are appropriate for solving the challenge.
8. The students note down their ideas for the challenge.

This activity involves the use of lateral or divergent thinking to generate original, creative solutions to challenges. The facilitator should emphasise that it is OK if the initial inputs do not give the students any ideas for solutions. They can just wait for the next inputs to see if they generate any ideas.
The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.

Inspired by: This is inspired by Edward De Bono’s Lateral Thinking