How to be creative using NBP, not AICreativity ranks highly as a sought-after ‘soft skill’. Yes, creativity can be taught. And no, it isn’t all about AI. Rather, it’s about NBP – natural brain power…CREATIVITY IS MUCH VALUED BY EMPLOYERSA recent survey identified creativity as being “the most valuable soft-skill” to c-level executives and senior managers. So that makes creativity a ‘good thing’ to encourage in your students.Here’s a fun activity that does just that. I’ll explain the activity first, and then discuss why it works, and how it underpins all creativity.A FUN CREATIVE ACTIVITYLet’s be creative, and invent a new game.You might have your own way of doing this, or a particular method you prefer. That’s fine. But just in case you haven’t come across this one, let me describe it. This works best with the class working in groups of about six.STEP 1 – DEFINE THE FOCUSMy experience is that if the focus of the activity is too diffuse – ‘invent a new game’ – then a group wastes time arguing at cross-purposes, with different participants thinking about very different sorts of games. So I prefer to narrow the focus by identifying a specific starting point – ‘invent a new game starting from chess’, ‘invent a new TV game starting from Pointless ’…STEP 2 – WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU KNOWThe instructions for this step are “Working individually, and in silence, spend the next ten minutes making a list of everything you know about chess” (or whichever game you are using). During that time, everyone makes their own list, for example, ‘there are two players’, ‘pawns capture diagonally’, ‘the castles are placed at the corners’…Some will know more than others, but that doesn’t matter – it’s not a test. And even those who don’t like chess or who have never played it are likely to know that there are two players, lots of pieces, and a board. That’s fine.STEP 3 – SHARETen minutes to write down what you know is enough, and is the preparation for this step, in which all the members of the team share their individual lists to compile an aggregate list, combining all the individual points.There are many learning opportunities here – not about chess (or whatever), but about oracy, about listening, about not ‘hogging the limelight’, about enquiry (“I don’t understand that, would you explain, please?”), about handling disagreement (“You’ve just said the pieces are black and white. I’ve played chess with pieces that are red and white…”), about respect, about teams, about communication (aha! that’s the top “soft skill” for recruiters )…STEP 4 – CHOOSE ONE ITEM, AND ASK “HOW MIGHT THIS BE DIFFERENT?”This is the creative step, in which the team chooses one item on the list that has just been compiled, so triggering creativity’s most important question, “How might this be different?”. And ideas will begin to flow…Take for example, ‘there are two players’. How might this be different? In lots of ways… for example…. just one player is chess against a computer, so that already exists. But how about 4 players? How might that work? How might the players be organised? One possibility is in two teams of two, with players taking alternate moves, like in doubles tennis. Another is that ‘Ali’ plays ‘Sam’ for, say, 5 moves, and then ‘Alison’ and ‘Samantha’ take over for the next 5. Or maybe the switch takes place as the result of an event, such as whenever there’s a capture. And suppose ‘Alison’ and ‘Samantha’ are in a different room, and haven’t been watching those first 5 moves, but take over the position ‘from scratch’…STEP 5 – WHEN THAT CONVERSATION PETERS OUT, CHOOSE ANOTHER ITEM…The list compiled in Step 3 will contain many items, so when the discussion of any one item slows down, that’s fine – just choose another item, and do the same again… and even more ideas will be generated.Take, for example, ‘pawns capture diagonally’. How might that be different? Suppose, for example, that pawns capture directly ahead. That transforms the entire game, for that standa...
