Are you a visual learner? Or do you learn best by listening? Neither? Well, maybe you fall into the reading/ writing camp. Or maybe you’re a kinesthetic learner.
Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing.
They respond well to information or solve problems best when given a tactile experience—anything they can play with and touch.
Have you ever seen the movie, A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise as lawyer, Daniel Caffey? In a pivotal scene, Caffey is thinking through the case, brainstorming ways to win it. Frustrated yet energized, he searches for his baseball ball, asking the other lawyers on his team, “Where’s my bat? I can’t think without my bat.”
Caffey is clearly a kinesthetic thinker. He needs a physical item to get his brain working in an optimal way.
Many people fall into the kinesthetic camp. That’s why hands-on activities are so great for fostering creative problem-solving skills in kids who learn this way. But even if every member of your team doesn’t learn best with the aid of physical objects, every team member will benefit from completing a task where they need to create something tangible together.
Teams aren’t the only ones who benefit from adding hands-on activities to their arsenal of tricks, though.
Writers, and anyone else looking for a creativity boost, will too. So, whether you’re coaching Odyssey of the Mind/Destination Imagination, leading a volleyball organization or a soccer team…or a writing a book, I hope you’ll keep reading. Because these hands-on tasks—all inspired by the OotM program, are so worth trying!
Even a writer?
Yes, a writer! Like any team ever in existence, writers get into slumps and hit obstacles. Even though the activities I’m going to share with you are designed for teams, most can be done alone as well. When I’m having trouble seeing my way through a tangled-up scene, it helps me to open up my treasure chest of hands-on materials.
Why?
Well, I learn information best by reading and writing. However, I fall in the kinesthetic camp too. I create scenes for my books or build fictional world’s best with a combination of writing (doodling/ jotting down ideas) and manipulating physical items.
For example, if the world I’m creating becomes too big for my mind to grasp all at once, I’ll sometimes grab a pile of Legos or multicolored markers. I’ll lay them all out on my desk or a table. With each one representing a person or place on the map of my scene, I’ll move them around at will. This way, I can physically watch a scene play out easier than just imagining it.
Similarly, with hands-on activities, a person or team is required to physically manipulate the materials in order to complete the task. I have found that doing tasks like these, every once in a while, inspires me to think about my writing in new and more creative ways. And as a bonus, when I’ve actually solved the task, I’m left with a sense of accomplishment and feel empowered to make bold moves in my writing.
That’s why I love these tasks for teams but also for individuals. We all need to feel a sense of accomplishment and empowerment once in an awhile!
So, what are these tasks?
Well, there are literally hundreds of examples that you can find all over the internet, if you’re curious. To save you time, here are five of my favorites. More will be uploaded to the site soon. But these will get you and/or your team started. Good luck & have fun! I hope you find them useful.
Next up on the blog: Hybrid Team Tasks
Until then, keep your mind swirling—inspiring that next big spark!
