Toni Newman showed us how we can get in the mindset of thinking more creatively, of seeing new possibilities. We divided into groups and she passed out a different ordinary objects to each group. We were challenged to come up with 20 (yes, twenty!) purposes each object could serve as under different circumstances.

Our group was given a roll of masking tape as our "ordinary object". Our first challenge was to imagine purposes for the object if we were a 5 year old child. Then we looked at it from the perspective of an alien visiting from another planet. Then from the perspective of a blind person. Sound hard? The amazing thing is that we came up with 20+ responses for each situation, except for the alien one, where we fell short by a few.  

It may sound silly, but it really opened up our minds to possibilities and to a type of creative thinking. It set the groundwork for our next exercise, which had more practical applications...