Yes AND…

Activity Summary

Students work together to generate ideas and brainstorm using the prompt ‘Yes AND’ to build and generate ideas. This is a simple energizer, which supports students in getting into an explorative, creative and open mindset.

Activity Plan

1

5 mins

Put the students into pairs or groups and explain the exercise:

There is a person A and a person B. Person A begins the exercise by saying: “Let’s …” The next person answers by the following model: “Yes (accept), and what I love about this is … (integrate & build on). The next person could then say “And we could also… (offer).”

The next person builds on top this answer following the same model. The conversation continues for approx. 5 minutes. See additional resources for template. This can also be simplified for students by asking them just to use the ‘Yes, and’ to build on each other’s ideas.

2

5 mins

Students engage in the activity.

3

5 mins

Consider rounding off by sharing how this mindset and exercise can be used if they are stuck in creative processes in group work.

Tips & Tricks

  • This is a simple energizer, which supports students in getting into an explorative, creative and open mindset. It might help them get out of a feeling of being stuck or blocked in a co-creative process. This is a good activity, when the students need to kickstart their creative and positive thinking.  This simple exercise trains the students ability to take an input and build on top of it following the steps of: Accept, Integrate, Build on, Offer.
  • As a teacher, you can emphasise that there is no build-on that is too crazy or too much, it is encouraged that the ideas escalate!

Additional Resources

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Group, Pair

Setup and materials

Students organise themselves into pairs or groups.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Creative thinking
Building on top of each others ideas
Improvisation
Collaboration and support in co-creation processes

Pillars insight

Creativity

Practising the skill of saying “Yes! and…” is important in creative processes, to not stop the flow of a creative and explorative process and to dive deeper into the potential of a situation, instead of looking first from a mindset of limitation and realism. This opens the potential of unexpected possibilities.

Co-creation

The students have to build on top of each other's ideas, so this exercise only works if the students collaborate in the pairs. They practise supporting each other's ideas and build on top of each other's input, which is a useful skill in co-creative processes.

Well-being

This exercise allows the students to step into a positive and open mindset in which they can explore unlimited potential. An important mindset to learn for their future professional and personal lives.

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