This is an activity you can try solo or as a group. DO NOT look at the solutions below without trying.
For the activity, you will need:
- Sheets of paper or a whiteboard or blackboard
- Pens or whiteboard markers or chalks
- Timer or stopwatch
Ok. Whatever you are using—paper and pen or board and marker—keep it ready. You have a drawing task to complete in 5 seconds. If you are using sheets of paper and playing as a group, then no cheating! Do not copy. Do not use ChatGPT. If you are using a whiteboard or blackboard in a group, then ask all participants to stand up. Turn around with backs to the board. Call participants to the board one by one with the group turning back. Ask them to perform the activity. Then take a picture of their result. And finish by asking them to clean the board for the next participant to try. If the group is large, it is better to use papers.
The drawing task is simple, and here is the task:
Draw a square with three lines. Your time starts now.
5 seconds over, times up! Pens down.
What did you draw? Was it this?
Now, in a group, some people may know about the activity. While for others it may be new. Some would have drawn it like the above. While others may have drawn it in a different way.
Next, here is step two of the activity. Take another sheet of paper or use the board again. This time limit is two minutes. The task is same:
Draw a square with three lines.
But this time, try to come up with as many solutions as you can possibly draw in two minutes.
Yes, there are multiple solutions to this. And the goal of the activity is to nudge you to think of as many possibilities as you can.
Now you can continue the activity with a third step too. Somewhere in between those two minutes or as you keep trying to think of more solutions, you may feel as if you had hit a block. No more ideas may seem to come. That is where you need to push yourself more. So the third step will be to have no time deadline and keep thinking right when you feel you can’t think of any more solutions! This helps you with better problem solving and strengthens your creative thinking skills.
How was that ‘square with three lines’ face, by the way 😉