Creater-cizes: creativity exercises.

How does a camp foster creativity and encourage the development of new ideas? Creativity exercises, or creater-cizes, can help camps generate ideas and solve problems. Common examples used at camp are brainstorming and story boarding. A few other useful techniques include: analogies and metaphors, association/free association, spinning, and lists.

Analogies and Metaphors

Analogies and metaphors can help you identify problems and better understand the causes. You can also use these methods to generate alternative solutions and ideas. Drawing an analogy between your problem and something else - or expressing such a comparison in metaphorical terms - may provide insight into how to solve a problem or develop a new application for a program.

Using analogy to create community

An analogy is a comparison of two things that are essentially dissimilar but are shown through the analogy to have some similarity. To use analogy to help solve a business problem or create an idea, think of an analogy between your challenge and something else. Then ask yourself what insights or potential solutions the analogy suggests. For example, as a camp leader, you are always looking for new ice breakers and novel ways to build community at camp. Having your staff sit in a circle and introduce themselves by passing around a roll of toilet paper or a bag of M&Ms or through group juggling is common. But what if you passed around and across a spool of kite string? The analogy of a food web may create a new ice-breaking activity at your camp, the community/camp web.

Using metaphors to expand your program

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two different universes of thought are linked by some point of similarity. Typically, a metaphor treats one thing as if it were something else in order to point out a resemblance you would not ordinarily perceive. An exercise that uses the power of metaphor to spur creative problem-solving involves first thinking of a challenge to your program and then writing five metaphors that describe the program challenge. Next, for each of the five metaphors you've listed, ask yourself what insights it provides into meeting your challenge.

For example, a program challenge might be utilizing the week of spring break at your camp. Your five metaphors might include:

1. Camp in spring is like flying a kite.

2. Camp in spring is like planting a garden on a rainy day.

3. Camp in spring is like a professional football mini-camp.

4. Camp in spring is like substitute teaching a science class.

5. Camp in spring is like climbing a mountain.

Each one of these metaphors offers insights into ways to meet the challenge of utilizing the week of spring break at camp. Metaphor one could result in a kite flying rodeo or Olympics or a gala in which kids learn about, create, and build their own kites. Metaphor three could result in a passing camp like the pros, but for kids. Metaphor five could result in taking campers to a mountain for a week-long adventure trip. These ideas may not be feasible for an entire week of camp, but they can possibly be put to use in other ways or lead to other ideas.

Association and Free Association

Association involves making a mental connection between two objects or ideas. It works through three primary laws originally laid down by the ancient Greeks: contiguity, similarity, and contrast. Contiguity, in this case, means nearness. For example, when you see a chalkboard, you might think of school. Similarity means that one object or thought reminds you of a similar object or thought. For example, when you see a Girl Scout you might think of your days as a camper. Metaphors and analogies depend on similarity. Contrast refers to dissimilarities that are nearly opposites: black and white, man and woman, or child and adult. Association involves thinking of something near to, similar to, or in contrast to the object or idea in question.

In free association, you may say whatever comes into your mind when you look at a word you just wrote or a one- or two-word definition of a problem. Then you pursue the resulting trail of thoughts. The purpose is simply to get thoughts written down or recorded in some manner and then to use those thoughts to trigger new thoughts about a problem. Don't expect to find solutions per se; rather, you are looking for thoughts that might lead to solutions.

Solving problems with free association

Free association is a good group exercise, as well as a useful individual exercise. First, start off with a one- or two-word summary of your challenge. Next, write the first word that comes to mind after you read the summary. Continue the process, each time writing the first word that comes to mind when you look at the previous word. Continue until you have at least ten words, but twenty to thirty words are better. Now look at your list of words. See how each gives you some insight into your problem/challenge. Can you use any to draw analogies that could lead to solutions or ideas? Take the words that grab you; use them to brainstorm solutions or to form new associations that can then be used to brainstorm other solutions.

For example, at the Campbell Soup Company, a group of product developers began by randomly selecting the word "handle" from a dictionary. Through free association, someone suggested the word "utensil." This led to "fork." One participant joked about a soup that could be eaten with a fork. The group reasoned that you couldn't eat soup with a fork unless it was thick with vegetables and meat. Campbell's Chunky Soups, an extremely successful product line, was born.

The difference between free association and regular association is that in regular association, the associated word must somehow be related to the word before it. Thus, "airplane" could lead to "pilot," but not to "tree." In free association, you can use any word that pops into your mind.

Spinning

This exercise is named after the common practice made famous in Washington, D.C., of asking "Why not put this practice to good purposes?" Spinning is an exercise in which you take your program, challenge, or idea and try to look at it from different angles or from different viewpoints. This may often start with the question, "What if?" It's thinking like this that asks, for example, "What if we combined Scrabble with a counselor hunt?" or "What if camp was not modeled after the military?" Take a program, give it a spin, and see what you come up with. See if you can put a positive "spin" to your ideas, challenges, or programs.

List Making

All the ideas in the world will not do you any good if you cannot recall them and put them into action or to work. That is why it is crucial to write them down and keep them organized in some fashion. A lost idea is just that. To encourage staff to write down any ideas, thoughts, and suggestions they come up with, give each person a pocket-size, spiral-bound notebook during staff orientation. By the summer's close, campers, staff, and the camp will reap the benefits of dozens of new ideas.

Good communication is the key to stimulating creativity and productivity. Create a work environment where staff are encouraged to question and take control over their work. You may be surprised by the new ideas that develop and by the improved attitude of your staff.

Michael Rule is a master's candidate in the recreation administration and leisure studies program at Washington State University. Prior to attending graduate school, he was the associate director at Phantom Lake YMCA Camp.