LESSON PLAN: CREATIVITY AND GENERATING IDEAS
Creativity isn’t about your ability to draw a still life or create a short film—creativity is actually
more about a way of thinking, one that we can all attain. Creativity is an essential tool in the kit
of a successful entrepreneur. In this module, we will help students realize their creative potential
through the process of generating ideas and solutions to issues they want to solve.
Learning Outcomes
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Identify problems and apply innovative solutions through the mode of ideation
Create ways and identify convergence tools to boost your creative process
Use various brainstorming techniques to break down your ideas and visualize it
Set aside worries about failure and the fear that your idea is a ‘dumb’ one
Core Competencies
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Creativity
Ideation
Problem Solving
Timing & Schedule
The ‘Creativity and Generating Ideas’ module is recommended below as two separate 45-60
minute sessions to provide time as a group to run a creativity exercise and complete team
brainstorming. After each lesson there is a continuation or followup Workbook assignment;
Getting Started with Ideation and Rapid Validation respectively.
Icebreaker activity
Students form groups of 3-4. Each person in the group finds a
physical object in the class they feel connected to. Anything from a
book, a plant, a pen, a bag, etc. With your 3-4 items as a group, you
must now build a new product or service and create a story to go
along with it. Share it with the class in the form of a pitch or a fun skit!
Lesson 1
Creativity, Invention & Innovation / ​Why is creativity important? Be inspired by a few examples of
business innovation, have students answer the Creativity questions from the Workbook - 10 min
Creativity Lab /​ Run a skill building activity to practice being creative. Select an activity, acquire
props in advance (if required), and brief students on professional decorum to make the activity
worthwhile and fun for all - 20 min
Ideation Process / ​Discuss the ideation process, how to bolster ideation, and outline the golden
rules for ideation - 15 min
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Getting Started With Ideation / ​Download the Getting Started with Ideation Workbook and work
through Examples of Innovation and Fill the Gap sections or assign these for the next session. 15 min
Assignment:​ Between Lesson 1 and 2 - Complete the Getting Started with Ideation Workbook
and have your students submit a document describing three products or services they love and
why.
Assessment:​ Look for creativity, an evidence of learning in the creative process, ideation, and
reflective thinking.
Lesson 2
Review / ​Ideation process and the purpose behind it - 5 min
The Idea Generator / C
​ omplete an individual brainwriting session (3 min), a team brainstorm
session and any/all of the following brainstorming techniques: Storyboarding, Mindmapping,
Wishing, and Reframing assumptions. Complete as many of them as you have time for to distill
ideas generated into a few top ideas, then to refine one for students to start validating - 20 - 35
min
Rapid Validation /​ Discuss the validation loop, explain each section and then have students
take turns explaining their problem to the group, sharing the top ideas, and getting feedback on
their solution. Download the Rapid Validation Workbook and work through all three sections.​ 20 min
Assignment:​ Have your students use at least two brainstorming techniques and evaluate each
one. Have them submit their proposed idea, what feedback they received from at least three
individuals and how their idea evolved based on the feedback.
Assessment: ​ Look for students to demonstrate their ability to break down their ideas and
visualize them, and use convergence tools to boost their creative process.
Enrichment / Extension Assignment​: Validation Interviews - Encourage students to use the
sample questions provided in the Rapid Validation section of the Workbook to create a template
for their validation interviews. Instruct students to complete their research, perform as many
validation interviews with potential customers as they can, and revisit their solution statement
with the information they gathered before next session.
Teaching Notes
Slide
Notes (also found in the notes section of the deck)
1:
Innovation, broadly speaking, refers to something original, new and important.
Innovation fuels social, economic and even political progress. Since it is at the core of
everything we do, let’s look at how ideas and creativity make that happen.
2/3:
Many people equate the process of creativity with artistry but that is not the case.
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Creativity is a way of thinking and approaching problems and ideas. Anyone can learn
the creativity process and apply it to many situations. Just like any muscle the more
we use the creativity tool set the more comfortable you become with the process.
4:
Creativity is an avenue we can use to develop new ways to approach problems,
engage unlikely partners and generate fresh new ideas. It is especially important
during the ideation and brainstorming phases of project development.
Think of creativity as a muscle—becoming more creative will require training and
discipline, but it’s something we can all get better at with practice.
5:
Successful business can be led both by processes of invention and innovation, and it’s
important to know what they are, and be able to recognize the creative aspect that
goes into developing each one.
If you are creating something new that has never been done before, your product or
service would be considered an invention. If you are taking something that already
exists and making it better, you are practicing innovation. Keep in mind throughout
your ideation process; that although inventing and innovating are very different paths
of ideation, both can lead to a successful business.
6:
Creative and innovative ideas come about in many different ways. Sometimes born
through necessity, maybe a desire to make something better, or completely by
accident! The stories behind well known products are creative and varied.
The idea to build a winter vehicle came to Bombardier after a blizzard in which his
young son fell ill and died because he could not be brought to the nearest hospital.
http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca/ct/pdf/joseph_armand_bombardier.pdf
Wheaties was created when a health clinician spilled wheat gruel on a stove and after
trying the transformed wheat flakes, knew many others would agree it tasted better
than the sloppy cereal his company was currently selling​.
https://www.wheaties.com/history/
And, the famous invention by mistake story; Post-it Notes were created when an
inventor and colleague collaborated to find a use for the not so sticky glue and a way
to bring it to a market - 3M Post-it Notes.
https://www.post-it.com/3M/en_US/post-it/contact-us/about-us/
7:
If creativity is what it takes to invent or innovate, where does creativity come from?
How can we make it flourish? If time permits, pause on this slide to exercise your
creativity muscle with a game or activity. Three options are provided below:
Option 1: “Props” - like the game from CBC’s “Whose Line is it Anyway?” show
Materials: Gather random items, one per pair of players.
How to play: Split into pairs and give them (or have them choose) a different, unusual
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prop. At the prompting of a host (teacher or student), or a buzzer (timer) the pairs
alternate giving short scenes using their prop in a unique way in front of the group.
Each pair can give three or four scenes before moving on to the next pair of
performers.
Notes: YouTube videos can be viewed in advance to get the gist of the game, and
students may need to be briefed as to proper decorum while performing.
Option 2: “Scenes from a hat” - a popular improv comedy game
Materials: Slips of paper, one per audience member, a hat, a selected theme, topic, or
question
How to play: Select ¼ of the class as actors, ¾ as audience members. Ask audience
members for short scene suggestions along the lines of your theme that they would
like to see performed. “First drafts of famous movie lines, Explain technology to a
grandparent, etc. Select at least 2 per actor of the most funny/appropriate ones and
place them in a hat. The host selects one out of the hat at a time. Actors take turns
performing their scene.
Option 3: “Add, subtract, multiply, divide” - a conceptual idea generator activity
Materials: Random items/props (or a list on paper), white boards, or chart paper, and
markers
Object: Create new products with pieces, parts, or combinations of items (in concept,
they don’t have to work yet!)
How to play: Students in pairs or groups pick four props from a bag or items from
their list and perform the following four operations to form round one. 1. Add two
objects together to make something new, do this twice and then create something
with the new objects that were created (3. multiply). 2. Subtract: take away part of an
object/prop to make it different and use it in a new way. 4. Divide up all the
items/props into categories, then take one item from each category and make
something new using all the items or props. Students may draw, or sketch the new
designs or just write about what the new products would be able to do. If time
permits, allow additional rounds with a new set of props or items. Each pair/group can
present a ‘most likely to succeed’ product/design to the class at the end of each round
or at the end of the activity.
Want more ideas? Check out the link for dozens of icebreaker, idea generation, and
creative exercises for your class.
https://www.sessionlab.com/library/idea_generation
8:
To improve our ability to be creative, we need to practice. One of the best ways to
encourage creative and innovative thinking is by reading, watching, and listening to
diverse perspectives and topics that are new to you.
Do some research, explore the market; at this stage, we want to continue making
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progress in developing a product for your ‘why’ in the last module.
9:
We’ve spent the first four modules in the problem exploration phase, or as we’ve
called it-- discovering our ‘why.’ Having been exposed to some of the global problems
outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Module 3 and considering the
increasing role that social purpose plays in the market as per Module 4, students
should have some insight and focus on their problem area(s). Take a moment to
review the problems your students defined in module 3 and the social purposes they’d
like to pursue in module 4. Are there similarities across the board? What are common
pain points? Which point matters most to students? Where will their focus and
mission be in this solution?
In the rest of this module, we focus on developing potential solutions. At this stage,
you may already have some idea of solution(s) you’d like to build a business on. By
the end of this module, you will be able to begin to test solutions that work.
10:
Ideation is the design process focused on generating ideas. We will be flexing that
creativity muscle as we generate business ideas! Anything goes here -- it’s your
opportunity to think big and get all of your ideas out there - no matter how crazy they
seem.
11:
To help keep you on track, here are some of our top tips on how you can have
productive ideation sessions:
Create a structure and set of outcomes you want to accomplish in advance.
This will help ensure you make the most of the time you have
A great ideation session starts by getting the right people in the same room. If
you don’t have a team yet, consider bringing in your friends, mentors, experts
or individuals you’ve identified as your target audience
Address and discuss the challenges and outcomes at the beginning to set the
foundation and make sure everyone is on the same page
Once you’ve generated a ton of ideas, group together similar ideas and discard
the outliers. **Consider which ideas are worth discarding is to look for ideas
that don’t align with your company values, ideas that don’t align with your
company goals, ideas that don’t align with your target audience and/or ideas
that aren’t achievable (based on timelines, financial constraints, etc)
12:
The four golden rules of ideation (Board of Innovation, 2019):
1.
There are no bad ideas:​ it’s incredibly easy to be tempted by critical thinking at
this stage; “this can’t/won’t work” might be a looming thought at many steps
along the way, so remind each other that there are no bad ideas at this stage.
Afterall, great business concepts are an unusual combination of (not-so) crazy
ideas that become meaningful when combined together
2.
Write everything down:​ a key element of the best ideation sessions is that
each and every idea be tracked and used as a building block in following
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3.
4.
13:
sessions, so come prepared with paper, markets, and plenty of post-it notes
Go for a hybrid brainstorm:​ why choose between individual and group
brainstorming when you can accomplish both? To avoid groupthink, begin with
a few minutes of brainwriting where each person works on their own to write
all their ideas before coming together as a group to brainstorm
Quantity over quality:​ selection is important but it doesn’t need to be done
during creative exercises like the process of ideation. Go for quantity and
worry about quality later.
It’s Idea Generator time! Use the ideation process to structure students’ thinking of
products that they love, creative ways to fill a gap, doing something unique, reframing
their assumptions, and challenging the status quo!
Download the Getting Started With Ideation Workbook and take time to work through
the Idea Generator. Consider examples of innovation, the current environment, and
challenge students to think of how they can fill gaps they see in their environments. It
is recommended that ‘Step 1: Brainwriting’ be completed individually as a timed 3
minute activity. Don’t overthink. Just write every idea on your chosen issue.
14:
Then, have your students collaborate to work on ‘Step 2: Brainstorming’. Many
brainstorming activities are provided in the workbook. Use as many as you have time
for! Storyboarding, mindmapping, wishing, reframing assumptions, all work toward the
goal of distillation and refinement of your top business idea.
So give it a try! We’ve left you with a lot of space in the workbook to brainstorm and
organize your ideas how you see fit.
15:
The goal of starting to share ideas during and after the brainstorming session is to
distill and refine your top business idea(s). Take time to receive and provide
constructive feedback and ask questions that challenge the solution. This step
continues in rapid validation next.
16:
So your students now have an idea or multiple ideas - how can you quickly tell if it is
worth pursuing? The goal of rapid validation is to test the theories before a lot of time
and money is spent on the idea. Have students form groups of 3-4 if possible and
facilitate 10 minutes of discussion. Each participant should explain their problem to
the group, share their top idea, and get feedback on their solution.
Use the “Rapid Validation of Your Ideas” Workbook Activity as an assignment for each
students’ top idea. Have them find out who will buy and use their solution. Send them
out to conduct interviews and gather feedback. Ask them to craft a solution statement
and repeat! This rapid validation process allows students to quickly modify their idea
according to what they learn from their conversations. Remind them that their idea
may change drastically by the end of the rapid validation process.
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17:
It’s completely normal to feel stuck. This feeling, especially at this stage in the
process, can come from anywhere; being unsure of which idea to choose, absolute
fear of failure, etc. This static feeling is known as ‘analysis paralysis’ and is common
for any entrepreneur, regardless of their past lived experience. Overcoming the fear of
failure is especially key in getting past this stage. It’s essential that you come to terms
with the fact that the only way to know if an idea will work is to give it a try.
If your students are feeling really stuck, help them find a few trusted advisors or
entrepreneurs who have faced similar decisions to the one they are facing.
Sometimes it can be useful to get feedback from others, as they’re less directly
affected by the decision. This can free them up to be more objective and to give
honest feedback. Guest speakers who are entrepreneurs are valuable at this stage as
they can hear and see how problems have been turned into opportunities, work ethic
matters, and listening to customers is essential. This can be a source of great
confidence for students.
18:
Failure is scary, and so we often let our fears of failure and embarrassment hold us
back. It’s a totally normal, human thing to do, but we’re here to push boundaries and
create something new, so in turn, you’ll have to encourage your students to push out
of their comfort zones to get over those fears. Have students write and rewrite their
solution statement as they try out their solution with customers and gain valuable
insights along the way. Afterall, the only way to know if an idea will work is to give it a
try. Go for it!
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