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Thinking tools

By Debbie Carter (June 2008 Issue)
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The games we are going to try this month relate to perceptual creativity. We generally view things in a pretty narrow way and these exercises are designed to make you look at words and ideas differently – to think beyond the obvious.

EXERCISE 1 For this exercise you need to be able to perceive a wide range of relationships, similarities and so on. Select five random words and, from these, choose one to be the most ‘central’ and then relate the other four words to it. In each case explain the nature of the relationship.

For example, the five random words are kiss; beans; revenge; war and kennel (the central word). So, beans come in cans – a type of container, or kennel, for beans. In war, people and nations are trapped or contained within the history of their emotions. A kiss is an invitation to someone to come share your kennel. With revenge, a person is contained within a perception of history and their emotions – it may be difficult to get out.

If you use beans as the central word, the following connections could be formed: war is often about food, oil and the necessities of life – the word beans symbolises food.

A kennel is the comfort part of a dog’s life and beans are considered by many as a comfort food. A kiss is warm and comforting – like beans. Revenge is yours and you may wake up to it every morning just as you may like to have beans for your breakfast each morning.

EXERCISE 2 This is another exercise where you are asked to look beyond the obvious. Obtain five random words and list them; for each word put down the most immediate response: this can be an association, a concept or anything else you can think of. Return again to the list and add a further response which is clearly different to the first.

Here is an example:

Random word       First response      Second response
SAILOR                   ship                         girls in ports
FAINT                      collapse                  feeble sound
FEAST                     celebration             gluttony
HARP                      angels                     to nag
FIGHT                     aggression             lively spirit

Remember:

Here are some essentials to remember when carrying out the exercises.

  • There is no need for a time limit to the exercises or games, although you may want to set yourself five minutes per exercise and, as you get better, you may want to reduce this to two or three minutes.
  • Avoid simple similarities based on letters, spelling and so on.
  • There is no one ‘right answer’; any answer that fits the stated requirements of the exercise is equally valid. However, you will soon recognise which answers are more practical, unusual or offer a higher value.

These exercises are taken from How to have Creative Ideas: 62 exercises to develop the mind, Edward de Bono, Vermilion 2007. For further information on the work of the De Bono Foundation UK visit
www.debonofoundation.co.uk

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