Method guide · Work with a structured grid
Creativity Warmups
Draw four different responses before choosing the one that surprises you most, without evaluating skill or feasibility.
- People
- 2–120
- Base procedure time
- 5 minutes
- Recording
- Individual record
Purpose: Generate ideas.
English guide
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How this method works
A short warm-up for drawing four different responses and moving beyond the first idea. Use it when a meeting starts by looking for the right answer and proposals become similar. The facilitator presents the challenge in one sentence, and participants draw one different shape, movement, or use in each of four spaces. Do not evaluate skill or feasibility; focus only on filling the spaces for three minutes. Finally each person marks the idea they find most surprising. The result is four ideas and one to take to the next stage on a single sheet. Do not use five minutes to evaluate finished proposals or reach agreement.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
Use the arrow keys, Home or End while these controls have focus. The complete phase schedule remains below, including without JavaScript.
- Receive the question0–1 minutes from the start (1 minute)
Action: Receive. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Increase variations1–4 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Increase. Participation: Individually.
Individual record
- Choose surprise4–5 minutes from the start (1 minute)
Action: Choose. Participation: Individually.
Individual record
Facilitation steps
- For 1 minute, read the challenge in one sentence and set only the goal of making four dissimilar ideas.
- Explain that each of the four spaces should contain an idea differing in one shape or movement.
- For 3 minutes, participants work without discussion, filling spaces one at a time to make up to four ideas.
- Anyone who stops tries changing direction, reversing order, or changing the person using it.
- For 1 minute, circle one idea you did not expect yourself and add one word explaining why to take it into the next discussion.
If something changes
If
After 2 minutes, someone still has 2 or more spaces empty.
Then
Prompt them to change only direction, order, or the user to make another idea.
If
A sheet's four ideas differ only in names, with the same shape and movement.
Then
Redraw just one idea in reverse order and use a line to show the difference from the original.
If
At the end, a sheet has 2 or more circles.
Then
Keep only the one idea the person finds more surprising and erase the other circles.
Preparation
Materials
- One A4 idea sheet per person with four empty spaces
- One dark-coloured writing implement per person
- One timer for everyone showing elapsed time
Room and setup
- One writing work surface per person
- Print or write the challenge in one sentence at the top of each sheet beforehand
Adjust for people and time
Everyone draws individually at the same time, so timing is unchanged for 2–120 people. With 31 or more, place sheets and pens at seats beforehand and show the challenge both on the projection surface and on sheets. The facilitator does not circulate through each row but gives only a common signal at the 2-minute point. Sharing is outside these five minutes; use the circled idea in the next stage.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Do not evaluate drawing skill or feasibility in the warm-up. Keep it individual and separate later sharing; it is not a five-minute final evaluation or agreement process.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- Jerry Becker: Creativity Warmups
https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/creativity-warmups/
Adaptation under CC BY 4.0; changes made
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC BY 4.0
Current-page licence notice
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Credits on the checked source page
- Named contributors on the source page: Jerry Becker
- Contributors listed in the official practice source (repository handles): @heyjerrybecker
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Creativity Warmups.
Source lineage
CC BY-SA 4.0 — this site's adaptation and translation contributions · Legal code · Official source policy
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Diagram, print, and video language
Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.
English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.
The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.
Editorial provenance
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