Opposite Words

• People have a tendency to take the most obvious word and use it, instead of thinking of unexpected, uncommon or subtle words. A team can get in the habit of thinking about non-obvious words by taking a variety of commonly used words and considering their opposites. The words chosen should have opposites that are not immediately obvious. For example, the obvious opposite of “day” is “night,” but there are less obvious opposites to “elegant."
  
  

Interpreting Images

• Participants can look at shapes that are easily identifiable and can consider what these shapes mean. For example, the participants may see what is clearly a thought cloud. However, the leader of the brainstorming session can have the participants list other things the thought cloud could represent. For example, the thought cloud can represent a cloud of smoke. The participants can compete to try to develop the largest number of alternative things the thought cloud might represent, teaching the participants to interpret concepts in new ways.
  
  

Mind Maps

• Mind maps involve participants taking a single idea and writing many concepts that come to mind in response to the initial concept. For example, the initial concept may be “Mother’s Day” and the first concept to come to mind is “flowers,” followed by “phone call.” Those in the group take turns brainstorming ideas and write these ideas on the map, with lines leading from the original concept to the new idea.
  
  

Improvisations

• Use improvisation. Gather a variety of objects, such as a baseball bat, belt, lunch box, dog toy and paper clips. Have the group develop a variety of different ways to use these objects. If some of the group members have a hard time participating, give each member the floor for a period of time, such as ten minutes.
  
  

Word Associations

• Participants can break into pairs. One member says something and the other member says the first thing that comes to mind in response. Then the other partner says the first thing that comes to mind in react to the response. This continues back and forth until a time limit passes. Since everyone has different associations to specific words, this exercise can cause members to see things from the perspective of others.