Impact Learning

Some people have an excellent memory for words, others for numbers, and still others for music. But are there genes that regulate how the brain ages? Do genes give us our memory power during our youth? And as we age, to what extent do genes control or program the time when nerve cells degenerate in the hippocampus and frontal lobes? We are waiting for the answers to these questions, because only then will it become possible to translate this genetic knowledge into practical,
therapeutic interventions.
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This is yet again another exercise with the potential to create unique perspectives by the combination of related problem elements. The visual of the diamond shape helps participants create word combinations easily that may spark unique ideas. It also consumes relatively little time, so it is a time-efficient technique because the number of word combinations is limited. On the other hand, the small number of words can be a limiting
factor by providing a smaller number of stimuli than other activities.

Consider having participants debrief using the following questions:
• What was most helpful about this exercise?
• What was most challenging?
• What can we apply?
• How would you rate the value of this exercise to helping us with this issue?
• Will this exercise be helpful in the future for other sessions?
• What did you learn?
• What will we be able to use from this exercise?
• What ideas were generated, and which ones were most interesting?

Word Diamond Handout
Suppose you are losing scientists to your competitors. In particular, you want to encourage more professional employees to remain in the research and development (R&D) department. First, select four words or phrases: encourage, employees, remain, and R&D. Next arrange them in the shape of a diamond, as shown in Figure 6.4.

Finally, use various combinations to suggest ideas:
• Give incentive rewards for employees who achieve special professional recognition (from “employees/encourage”).
• Match up younger employees who are more likely to leave with older employees and form a buddy program (from “employees/encourage”).
• Establish two career tracks—one managerial and one nonmanagerial—to take into account different professional growth needs (from “employees/remain”).
• Develop a “Pride in R&D” public relations campaign to promote team spirit (from “R&D/employees”).

Taken From : Pfeiffer 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity

Programmed cell death is like the entire assembly line going on permanent strike, leading to factory closure. Disruption of biological clocks is the entire managerial staff, including the chairman and board of directors, calling it quits. Many of the natural ebbs and flows in the body— including sleep, body temperature, and hormone secretion— are under the control of biological clocks that are genetically programmed to react according to set time sequences, such as the twenty-four-hour day, based on environmental inputs. As our DNA decays with aging, these natural rhythms become erratic and begin to desynchronize, weakening our natural defenses against disease. Gradually, over time, the disruption of biological clocks becomes a central feature of the aging process.
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As an example, consider a problem of how a restaurant could attract more customers. The action verb and object are “attract” and “customers.”
Here are some possible ideas from inserting relational words between these two words:
• Have special community nights in which people are seated across from someone new in order to make new friends (from “attract/across/customers”)
• Offer special low rates for meals eaten before a certain time (from
“attract/before/customers”)
• Place advertising fliers on cars of supermarket customers and offer them a discount in exchange for their grocery receipts (from “attract/near/customers”)
• Hire a public relations firm (from “attract/about/customers”)
• Add an outdoor patio (from “attract/out/customers”)
• Give discounts to overweight people (from “attract/round/customers”)
• Have a special room for people who like to eat on the floor (from “attract/under/customers”)
• Give discounts to customers who help recruit new customers (from “attract/with/customers”)
• Start an eating club with one free meal for every ten purchased (from
“attract/since/customers”)
• Specialize in healthy foods and offer free diet planning (from “attract/within/
customers”)

Taken From : Pfeiffer 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity

• To help participants generate as many creative ideas as possible
• To help participants learn how to use the activities to generate ideas

Participants
Small groups of four to seven people each

Materials,Supplies,and Equipment
• For each group: markers, two flip charts, and masking tape for posting flip-chart sheets
• For each participant: one sheet each of three different colors of sticking dots (1?2” diameter) and one pad of 4 x 6 Post-it® Notes

Handout
• Word Diamond Handout

Time
20 minutes

Related Activities
• Bi-Wordal [22]
• Circle of Opportunity [23]
• Ideas in a Box [25]

Procedure
1. Distribute the Word Diamond Handout, review it with the participants, and
answer any questions they may have.
2. Tell the groups to state their problems so that they contain at least four major problem attributes or elements, including both nouns and verbs.
3. Have them select four major words or phrases from this statement and write them on a flip chart, arranging the words or phrases in the shape of a diamond. There should be one word at each vertex (point) of the diamond.
4. Tell them to select one of the four words or phrases, combine it with another, and write down any ideas prompted.
5. Ask them to continue selecting and combining words until they have tried generating ideas from all possible combinations.
6. Have them write down their ideas on Post-it® Notes (one idea per note) and place them on flip charts for evaluation.

Taken From : Pfeiffer 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity

After you have rolled the dice, you might think of the following types of ideas:
• Gourmet soup with secret ingredients (2–3–3)
• Soup to eat after exercising (like Gatorade®) (4–5–3)
• Soup cans with pictures of famous mothers (5–1–5)
• Achicken soup can with a Sterno® container built into the bottom (6–5–4)
• Soup cans with prizes inside (1–6–4)

Word Diamond
Background
Hot new ideas shine and sparkle with radiant brilliance. They illuminate their surroundings and blind lesser ideas. Everyone wants a shiny, multifaceted new idea, but you can’t always get what you want. Sometimes you have to settle for a so-so idea.

The Word Diamond technique won’t ensure that all your ideas will sparkle. It will, however, provide you with another systematic approach to idea generation. And it’s a breeze to implement.

This technique originally was developed by VanGundy (1983) as a simple combination procedure using elements of a problem statement. Thus, it is similar to Bi-Wordal [22]. Instead of using alternative word meanings, however, Word Diamond generates ideas by combining words in the problem statement in different ways.

Taken From : Pfeiffer 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity

1. Have each group obtain a sheet of flip-chart paper and tape it lengthwise to a wall or lay it down on a table.
2. Distribute the handout, review it with the participants, and answer any questions they may have.
3. Tell them to generate three lists of six problem elements and number each element within each list. Say that these elements may or may not be related to their particular problem.
4. Instruct them to label the lists “White Die,” “Green Die,” and “Red Die” (or other colors corresponding to the dice used).
5. Ask each person in each group to take turns rolling each die and select the element indicated for each list.
6. Tell them to use the combinations of the three elements to spark ideas.
7. Have them write down their ideas on Post-it® Notes (one idea per note) and place them on flip charts for evaluation.

Debrief/Discussion
666 evokes an alchemy of the creative process: A“brew” of stimuli is stirred together to craft multiple ideas for resolving a challenge. The three columns of stimuli provide a fertile matrix of word combinations for group members to use as springboards for generating ideas. Seeing multiple words together this way can help participants free-associate and make unique combinations. The game aspect of rolling dice also makes this an appealing exercise.

Have the participants debrief using the following questions: • What was most helpful about this exercise? • What was most challenging?
• What can we apply?
• How would you rate the value of this exercise to helping us with this issue?
• Will this exercise be helpful in the future for other sessions?
• What did you learn?
• What will we be able to use from this exercise?
• What ideas were generated, and which ones were most interesting?

Taken From : Pfeiffer 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity

Seeing the financial and market price today, you have to make an investment. If you have enough budgets, you can try to make an investment on gold or silver. This investment idea is related to the fact that the price of gold and silver are increased day by day.

For UK investors that interesting to buy a gold and silver, you can go to BullionByPost.Co.Uk. Gold and silver bullion will be selling based on the market price and later you can sell it even higher. If the investors want to buy gold bar, this site has three selections of gold bars. They have one ounce, 100 hundred gram, 1 kilo for the gold bars. Whereas, for the silver bars they have 1 kilo and 5 kilo and both of bars completed with the info about the price.

And all those three gold bars are ready in stock. Gold bars and silver bars are manufactured by London Bullion Market and cooperate with several partners. Both of these products are always new. Therefore, you can ask more information from the customer service.

Is there a limit to how much you can remember? Off hand, we all know that we can teach an old dog new tricks. Millions of people who are past their so-called prime are able to take college courses and graduate with advanced degrees. But if there are distinct brain regions for each subtype of memory— proper nouns versus other nouns, for example— don’t these bookshelves get saturated over a lifetime of exposure to thousands of pieces of information that make up our brain libraries? And if these brain regions get saturated, how can a middle-aged or older person still have the capacity to learn whole new languages and technologies?
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1. Distribute the handout, review it with the participants, and answer any questions they may have.
2. Have someone in each group write the problem on a sheet of flip chart paper and underline the action verb and the object (for example, “How might we reduce littering?)
3. Tell group members to take turns selecting a relational word and inserting it between the verb and the object.
4. Have the entire group use the combination as an idea stimulus, write down any ideas on Post-it® Notes, and place them on a flip chart for evaluation.
5. Instruct the groups to repeat Steps 3 and 4 and continue this process until time is called.

Debrief/Discussion
One of the best features of this activity is its ability to create unique stimuli using related problem words. The simple juxtapositioning of a preposition between two related stimuli helps provoke associations—often visual ones—that two related words together might not produce. In this respect, Preppy Thoughts has the potential to create an experience similar to one using unrelated stimuli. After the participants have finished using this
exercise, you might ask them if they experienced visual images more than they normally do with other approaches.

Also consider having participants debrief using the following questions:
• What was most helpful about this exercise?
• What was most challenging?
• What can we apply?
• How would you rate the value of this exercise to helping us with this issue?
• Will this exercise be helpful in the future for other sessions?
• What did you learn?
• What will we be able to use from this exercise?
• What ideas were generated, and which ones were most interesting?

Taken From : Pfeiffer 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity