Before you start answering this question, get a pen, a few sheets of paper, and a smartphone (or other way of timekeeping.) Give yourself 5 minutes to invent as many uses for a brick as you can. And go! Don’t self-censor much at all. Any use of a brick goes onto your list. As the uses get more and more unorthodox (a veggie masher! a laptop stand!) you’ll be moving your mode of thinking “outside the box.” After 5 minutes answering this question, go back to the activity you were stuck on. You’ll have new eyes for the problem.
Source: The Transformative Action Institute’s “Creativity Curriculum”
Have you asked this question? How did it go? Do you have advice for how best to ask it? PLEASE RATE! AND WRITE A REVIEW (in the comment box below)!
This is a standard question used to measure creativity but doesn’t seem like it would really be productive in terms of moving a project or your thinking forward – unless you project was about bricks 🙂