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Aim
Trying to harness a host of creative ideas in order to make a decision as to which is best can be a rather tricky process. This lively exercise examines how creative ideas are constrained, freed or organized by giving each subgroup a different instruction on how to organize the task.
This group exercise asks group members to work together as a team to come up with creative ideas for a truly awful TV show and to make a collective decision as to which concept to run with.
It will take around one hour to complete.
Learning Objectives
Team members will be able to …
- explore the decision-making process within a group
- consider how, as a group, they deal with the organization of creative ideas
- Explore the strengths and weaknesses of different ways of arriving at a group decision
Suggested Resources
- task sheets A, B and C
- pen and paper for each participant
- sheet of flipchart paper
What to Do (30 minutes)
- Arrange participants into subgroups of about five and allocate the groups to different parts of the room.
- Decide which subgroup is group A, B, and C and hand out the appropriate task sheets to group members.
- Ensure each group member has a pen and sheet of paper and that each group has a sheet of flipchart paper.
- Ask them to read over the task sheet and follow its instructions.
- Tell the groups that they have 25 minutes to discuss their thoughts and ideas before making a decision.
Review Activity (20 minutes)
- After the 25 minutes are up, bring everyone back together as one group.
- Invite a spokesperson from each group to present their group’s idea for the worst TV show ever.
- As a group, vote on which of the ideas would make the worst TV show and declare the appropriate group ‘the winners’.
- Now ask each of the groups, working backwards from group C, how they organized the collection, discussion and decision-making aspects of the exercise. Ask:
- whether they felt this method freed or constrained their creativity
- whether the method used helped them arrive at decisions more quickly
- whether the method used made group members feel excluded or involved in both the creative and decision-making aspects of the exercise
Apply Learning (10 minutes)
- Ask participants if they feel any of the methods used could be employed in decision-making ventures within the workplace.
- Ask them to try to give specific workplace examples and specify why the method they mentioned would be helpful.
TV Hell - Task Sheet A
This group exercise asks you to work together as a team to come up with creative ideas for a truly awful TV show and to make a collective decision as to which concept to run with.
You are an integral member of the ideas team at an exciting new TV company. Naturally, you want to be as successful as you can in the shortest time possible. Realizing that you don’t yet have the kudos required to establish a prime-time hit, your team has opted to develop a show that will capture late-night viewers, mostly young people and students. Knowing how popular cult TV shows are, especially those ‘so bad they’re good’, you and your team are now trying to develop the most abysmally awful TV show imaginable.
To give you a kick-start, here are some crime-themed concepts that became proper TV shows:
- Mega-wealthy, lovey-dovey, husband and wife both have extremely demanding jobs that, somehow, don’t actually require them to do any work, thus freeing up plenty of time to jet around the world solving murders, art thefts and kidnappings.
- Elderly widow writes novels involving murders. This, obviously, leads her to become involved in an actual murder every week. The police are always baffled and it is left to the elderly widow to solve the crime.
- Two middle-aged/elderly women work as landscape gardeners. This leads them to become involved in an extremely high number of grisly murders.
Task
- Within your group, begin to discuss possible themes and ideas for your TV show.
- Note these down on the paper provided.
- When the allocated time is up, present your group’s idea.
TV Hell - Task Sheet B
This group exercise asks you to work together as a team to come up with creative ideas for a truly awful TV show and to make a collective decision as to which concept to run with.
You are an integral member of the ideas team at an exciting new TV company. Naturally, you want to be as successful as you can in the shortest time possible. Realizing that you don’t yet have the kudos required to establish a prime-time hit, your team has opted to develop a show that will capture late-night viewers, mostly young people and students. Knowing how popular cult TV shows are, especially those ‘so bad they’re good’, you and your team are now trying to develop the most abysmally awful TV show imaginable.
To give you a kick-start, here are some crime-themed concepts that became proper TV shows:
- Mega-wealthy, lovey-dovey, husband and wife both have extremely demanding jobs that, somehow, don’t actually require them to do any work, thus freeing up plenty of time to jet around the world solving murders, art thefts and kidnappings.
- Elderly widow writes novels involving murders. This, obviously, leads her to become involved in an actual murder every week. The police are always baffled and it is left to the elderly widow to solve the crime.
- Two middle-aged/elderly women work as landscape gardeners. This leads them to become involved in an extremely high number of grisly murders.
Task
- One person in the group should write his/her idea on the sheet of paper provided, after which, he/she Once he/she should pass the sheet to the person on his/her right. Do this until every person in the group has written down an idea. (If your group is quite small, less than 6, pass the sheet round twice so everyone can make two suggestions.)
- Now each member of the group should rate each of the ideas on the sheet of paper, with 1 signaling a decent show and 10 equating to a truly dire experience. Again, pass the sheet to your right until everyone has rated the ideas.
- Total the scores next to the ideas. The idea with the highest score will be the one you run with.
- As a group, refine the winning show idea and present it when the allocated time is up.
TV Hell - Task Sheet C
This group exercise asks you to work together as a team to come up with creative ideas for a truly awful TV show and to make a collective decision as to which concept to run with.
You are an integral member of the ideas team at an exciting new TV company. Naturally, you want to be as successful as you can in the shortest time possible. Realizing that you don’t yet have the kudos required to establish a prime-time hit, your team has opted to develop a show that will capture late-night viewers, mostly young people and students. Knowing how popular cult TV shows are, especially those ‘so bad they’re good’, you and your team are now trying to develop the most abysmally awful TV show imaginable.
To give you a kick-start, here are some crime-themed concepts that became proper TV shows:
- Mega-wealthy, lovey-dovey, husband and wife both have extremely demanding jobs that, somehow, don’t actually require them to do any work, thus freeing up plenty of time to jet around the world solving murders, art thefts and kidnappings.
- Elderly widow writes novels involving murders. This, somehow, leads her to become involved in an actual murder every week. The police are always baffled and it is left to the elderly widow to solve the crime.
- Two middle-aged/elderly women work as landscape gardeners. This leads them to become involved in an extremely high number of grisly murders.
Task
- All members of the group should spend 10 minutes thinking about their ideas. When the 10 minutes are up, each person should briefly explain his/her idea.
- After all ideas have been presented, the group should vote on the best one.
- As a group, refine the winning show idea.
- When the allocated time is up, present your group’s idea.
