Posts from — May 2009
Discuss: How to get children to eat more vegetables
Our challenge for today was “how to get children to eat more vegetables” – an age old question that we hoped to generate new solutions for.
Using Edward de Bono’s book, “Creativity Workout,” we applied the Thinker Tool: Random Words, and selected ‘sailor’ as our random word.
This initiated the story of Captain James Cook’s theory on the prevention of scurvy. A terrible scourge afflicting sailors on long voyages, Cook discovered that feeding his men cabbage held scurvy at bay. They weren’t fond of it, so the only way he could get them to swallow was by leading through example and eating it himself, in front of them.
Obviously Cook wasn’t aware that Vitamin C that was the cure but he did recognise that consuming certain foods (or the lack thereof) had a direct impact on the disease’s management.
This tale spawned a series of thought trails…
First it led us to ask: Why don’t children like vegetables? We established the following list:
taste, colour, texture, association, timing, appearance
This spun off a series of solutions to these issues.
1. Hide the vegetables:
- grated into minced meat meals ie: meat pies, sausage rolls, bolognese etc
- finely grated into rolled meat wraps where the taste and flavours drown out the stow-away
2. Disguise the vegetables:
- Serve them in unusual ways ie: desserts (pumpkin pie), chips (any root vegetable makes a good chip)
3. Change their appearance:
- Present the vegetables in fun ways i.e. a funny face
- Make them into dips ie beetroot dip
- Juice them
4. Serve them at unusual times
- include them in a breakfast cereal ie make a type of Cheerios/Fruit Loops whose base ingredient is vegetable
- offer them at snack times or when the kids are distracted instead of forcing them down as part of the main meal
5. Change their form
- create powder forms for drink bases to add to shakes etc
- serve as daily dose capsules ‘vitamins’
- hide the powder in jelly/jubes so they are like confectionery
Secondly it demonstrated that a way of changing behaviour can be to lead by example. We recgonised that how the parents and family eats and their relationship with vegetables will impact on the child’s response. This led to a conversation about peer pressure and how ‘school dinners’ in the UK were chosen based on what one’s friends were eating. Of course this was influenced by what was available so in those cases it would be a matter of replacing the junk foods with healthy options.
Thirdly if one type of vegetable isn’t available, substituting with another can deliver the same benefits i.e. don’t get too hung up on a vegetable, because any vegetable will do for a start.
This spawned another idea of creating a service which would create meals based on preferences (likes and dislikes of vegetables) for the busy or unhealthy eater who needed some inspiration to gradually change their eating patterns over time. It could be created in conjunction with a supermarket chain, which would produce a list of meals for the week based on budget and taste requirements, then home deliver the appropriate ingredients.
After an hour we could have kept going for another hour… but the rules of Thinking Club are clear, so we stopped and got on with some real work.
How about you? Can you use another Thinker Tool to generate further ways to get kids to eat more veges, or have you alreday some tried and true methods you use at home? Let us know by adding your comments.
Get your thinking caps on,
Thinking Club
May 15, 2009 No Comments
Thinker Tool: ‘Po’ Thinking
de Bono suggests applying the prefix ‘Po’ to any mechanism (such as ‘Po-Cars’) to get thinkers to break out of their familiar thought patterns, and create an entirely new construct, which could either replace or extend the original. As opposed to logical thinking, which restricts responses to ‘no’ or ‘yes’, Po thinking allows us to entertain the many realms of ‘possible.’
An example
For instance: in workshopping a ‘Po-Car’ one may start by listing a normal car’s attributes and applications ie a four-wheeled form of transport for passengers and a driver.
This would kick-start a brainstorm around how each of these attributes and applications may be rethought: varied or enhanced – which could lead to phenomenal developments on the basic model.
In our workshop, a ‘Po-aeroplane’ became a mile-high disco. The activity on the second floor of a Boeing would encourage activity thereby reducing the risk of DVT. Rather than seeing flying as unavoidable and tedious, passengers would be happy to pay more for their tickets as the journey became an essential component of their party-trip.
May 14, 2009 No Comments
Thinker Tool: Opposites
Using opposites forces you begin at a distant starting point and see your discussion through an entirely new lens.
Take your discussion statement and identify its key words. Put them in a list to the side. Alongside each key word, write its opposite. Now substitute your keyword with its opposite and see how it affects your discussion statement and the outcomes of your conversation. Often the more ridiculous the substitution seems, the better results you will generate.
Opposites in practice
Discussion Point: Our company’s mission is to encourage people to help one another.
Opposites of Keywords
company – individual
encourage – discourage
help – hinder
another – themselves
Each (individual’s) mission is to encourage people to help one another…
This may start the idea that to really bring a mission statement to life, each individual should be personally enacting the mission. This may encourage a practice whereby each employee writes their own strategy for ‘living the company mission’ during their everyday.
Our company’s mission is to (discourage) people to help one another…
This statement would provoke a conversation around why the company’s mission may not be working to its optimum and what the company is doing which may be discouraging a helping attitude. This may reveal discontent from the workforce and how the company is treating them. It may uncover dissatisfaction from customers or encourage the idea of running a customer satisfaction survey.
Our company’s mission is to encourage people to (hinder) one another…
Such a statement would continue further discussions as above. It may encourage a review of current policies, practices and procedures which may be affecting performance and holding the company back. It could provoke a competitive analysis to see how the opposition is beating the company’s performance.
Our company’s mission is to encourage people to help (themselves)…
Through allowing this conversation to take place, management may receive feedback that this is a situation that employees would prefer. By changing the focus off ‘helping others’ staff may suggest better activities for the company to make their mission. It may throw up ideas for self-empowerment which would ultimately ‘help another’
May 14, 2009 1 Comment
Thinker Tool: Random Words
This creative thinking technique is used world-over in various ways. De Bono has dedicated an entire book to the practice, titled: Creativity Workout. In it he supplied lists of random words and number tables to enable the random selection of the random words. Others, such as Michalko, simply suggest picking your random word from a dictionary – eyes closed.
When using the random words technique, follow these rules.
- The random word should be a noun.
- You can not decide you don’t like the random word, then change it. You must use the word selected.
- Random words may have multiple meanings/interpretations. Allow each participant to spend up to one minute writing all the possible interpretations they draw from this word and use each in your discussion.
- Though finding a ‘connection’ between your random word and discussion point is useful, don’t be limited by this. Working in concepts and values, rather than simple associations, will improve your output.
Random Words in Practise
Write your discussion statement up somewhere that the group can see it. Now have everyone choose a random word from a dictionary. Put these in a column next to your discussion statement. One at a time, insert the random word into your discussion statement and use its inclusion to generate new extensions of your original thought.
An example
- What is the impact of wearing school uniforms.
- Random word selections: analogy, order, touching
These random words might provoke discussions such as:
Analogy – ‘Use an analogy to discuss the impact of wearing school uniforms’
Wearing a school uniform is like being a prisoner. One is made devoid of any personality and distinguishing features. It discourages innovative thinkers.
Order – ‘How does the idea of order relate to wearing school uniforms?’
Wearing a uniform pervades a school with a sense of calm and order. It minimises visual chaos and distraction so students can place their priority on learning rather than fashion. Less time is wasted on worrying about what to wear.
Touching – ‘Discuss touching with regards to wearing school uniforms’
“It is touching to see how well everyone get along”… Wearing a school uniform softens the emotional volatility of teenagers. When everyone looks the same, wealthier students have less chance flaunt it and those who struggle financially can find ways to shine beyond mere appearance. Uniforms and second-hand clothing pools can make schooling more affordable and limit the divide between rich and poor.
NOTE – As each active keyword can be open to individual interpretation, this approach works well by allowing each participant to gather their own thoughts on paper before sharing them with the group in an open discussion.
May 14, 2009 1 Comment