How to use or facilitate:
- Hand all participants a blank sheet of paper.
- In 3 minutes, have them come up with 101 ways to use a paper clip.
- Poll the room how they did. Did anyone get 101? How high did they go? Have each participant share their list and discuss!
- Want to turn it up to 11? Making it 1000 uses, and give each participant 10 minutes.
The Takeaway:
The takeaway here is twofold; It’s not about getting to 101 ideas, but instead about emphasizing the importance of going for quantity in an ideation session. The time constraint against a seemingly impossible task, will force participants to get past the obvious uses and start to use their creativity to come up with ideas to fill their list. If you can get a few laughs out of the shakeout, all the better to keep the group’s energy up as you get down to business.
