Idiom-tic Inventors
Imagine you're an alien or a mad inventor, or both.
You’ve just arrived from a parallel universe or another planet (whatever works for you, let’s not grasp at straws here).
Disguised as a human, you try to blend in as you attempt to understand the weird and wonderful ways of these simple earthlings.
As you chat (because of course, even aliens and beings from parallel Universes can speak English), to the simpleton life forms known as humans, you hear strange phrases peppered into the conversation. Words that suggest impossibility such as ‘Pigs might fly.’ ‘Hold your horses.’ ‘Elephant in the room.’*
(*These phrases are known as Idioms: an expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words but that has a separate meaning of its own,)
As clearly the more intelligent life form in the conversation, you’re feeling irritated and think:
“Of course pigs can fly, you crazy fools!”
“Holding horses? Give me 3 you crazy mares.”
“I’ve spent many a night with an elephant in my room you dumbos! ”
Your Idiom-tic Inventor Mission
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to come up with a solution for some of these classic English idioms. This exercise is fun to encourage creative thinking when you’re feeling stuck. It’s even more fun if you do it as a group or as a team-building exercise.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Phrase: When pigs fly
Challenge: how would you get a pig to fly? NB, you cannot use a plane and the pig has to fly more than 5 metres into the air (slightly further than the height of the average house in the UK).
Phrase: Hold your horses
Challenge: horses get very tired carrying us and our heavy saddles and paraphernalia. Give them a welcome break and create an invention that enables YOU to carry a horse.
Phrase: Elephant in the room
Challenge: simple - how would you get an elephant in the room?
Phrase: Knock your socks off
Challenge: create a solution to putting your socks on without using another part of your body (no hands or mouths). What about other items of clothing such as tights, leggings or ultra-skinny jeans?
Phrase: Monkey business
Challenge: if a monkey was an entrepreneur what would they sell? How would they pitch it to Lord Sugar on the Apprentice or on Dragons Den?
Phrase: Armed to the teeth
Challenge: create a set of tools (the purpose of which is open to interpretation) made from teeth. These teeth could be human, shark or snails (yes, snails do have teeth).
Other Idiom Phrases to Inspire You:
Head in the clouds
Cat got your tongue
Raining cats and dogs
Thick as thieves
Neck of the woods
Clutch/grasp at straws
Bite the dust
Wet behind the ears
Go belly up
Everything but the kitchen sink
Pot calling the kettle black
Pie in the sky
Take with a pinch/grain of salt
Have a bone to pick with someone
Bull in a china shop
Instructions
This exercise could be completed over the space of an hour or 2 minutes. It’s up to you. Pick one or try to solve them all! Try them alone or, even more fun, in a group.
The laws of physics do not apply. You have the power to shrink or enlarge objects. Your pockets are bottomless pits and therefore you can use any materials you like, no matter the cost.
As a suggestion, take one phrase and ‘brain dump’ as many ideas as you can into a list (divergent, fast-thinking). Then choose your favourite idea and spend time working on that idea alone (convergent, slow thinking).
Ingredients
Loads of pens, paper and an open, beginners mind. There are no design rules here today.
Additional Exercise Suggestion:
Place limits on your time to come up with solutions, the materials you can use or think of a select group of people who may use your invention. Often, placing limits and constraints can bring about our most creative and original ideas.
As always, have fun with this!
Reflection & Inquiry
What was your initial reaction to this exercise? Reluctance? A feeling of impossibility?
Once you started thinking of ideas what happened? Did you struggle or did the ideas begin to flow effortlessly?
How can you bring a feeling of possibility to seemingly impossible situations in your life?
What can you do to look at problems from new perspectives? In more playful and unexpected ways.
What did you learn about yourself from this creative thinking exercise?
And Finally…
I would love to see pictures of your creations. Email your images and thoughts to info@georgiestclair.com or tag me @georgiestclair on Instagram
Have an inspired day!
Georgie x