Circle Creativity Game
This activity can be used as a warm-up for a session needing creativity, eg an ideation workshop. It was created as a test by psychologists, but rather than using it to judge an individual’s initial creative abilities, you can use it as a way to identify our natural creative weaknesses and highlight how working as a group increases the number of solutions.
In this activity everyone will individually draw as many solutions as they can think of within a minute, and it works with any sized group.
Any
5-10 min
Medium
Preparation
- Download the template with 30 circles and print one copy for each participant.
Steps
- Ensure everyone has a printed sheet with 30 circles and a pen.
- Give the group 1 minute to create as many figures/objects out of the circles as they can (eg making a circle a globe, a sun or a smiley).
- Once the time is up, discuss the different result in terms of:
- Fluency: how many circles did everyone complete?
- Flexibility: how many different categories do they have?
- Originality: how unusual or unique the design were? what are the most unusual objects people created?
Debrief
Ask the group questions to find out what their outcomes were, but also what they have learned.
Did they find it easier or harder than expected? Why?
If a smaller group, check the total number of objects within the team. Compare that with the average or maximum number (can often be used to point out the benefits with brainstorming).
Bonus tip
You can send the template to the participants, ask them to print out the template themselves, or draw the circles on a blank piece of paper.
If you are using a collaboration tool, let them draw on a virtual template. Do allow longer time if you go for this option.
What you need
- Circle template Download template
- Pens
- Timing device
Creator
Ellis Paul Torrance