Warm-up: Failing fingers

The Really Bad Ideas Brainstorm: Good ideas are great, but bad ones can be just as good. Those impossible, terrible, groan-worthy ideas open up the imagination and help us get in touch with creativity.

Get Out of Fail Free Card: What would you try if you knew you wouldn't get in trouble for failing? Encouragement and permission go a long way toward inspiring us to pursue what's creative and bold. That's why you're going to design your very own Get Out of Fail Free Card.

Under the Rug: Thinking of our failures often makes us cringe, but spending some time working through them can make us feel way better about them in the long run. It's hard, though, to revisit embarrassing, disappointing moments. Under the Rug is a quick exercise to help us own our failures—and learn from them.

The Failure Museum: It's easy to feel like you're the only one who has ever messed up. But as we know, that's simply not true. The Failure Museum is a great way to make the point that everyone messes up, and that it's OK. Really.

Warm-up: Musical musings

What More Can We Find: Learn how the technique of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) can help us stretch our thinking, look differently at the world, and validate our observations with evidence.

Pain Challenge: Really understanding the experience of others is a powerful way to break down existing assumptions and tune in to their needs. That's the role empathy plays in design and creative problem solving.

Step Outside Your Context: One of the best ways to get inspired and solve a problem creatively is to look at something really different—something you might never expect to be helpful or relevant to the task at hand.

Inspiration Walks: The world is rich with inspiration, but too often we walk right by it. This exercise is an invitation to tune in, get curious, and look more closely at the world around you.

Warm-up: Cap-tain Crumple

Hunch Hour: This exercise will help crack open "the way we've always done things around here" to come up with something creative, powerful, and new.

Spaghetti Challenge: This activity is classic introduction to prototyping and getting your hands dirty. Because making is often more fun than thinking. And it builds your creative confidence.

Wacky Ways to Fill a Stadium: This activity will help you to invite conversation around wacky, early concepts that might inspire more viable solutions.