Photo credit: Tim Rawson
How
board
games can help us
innovative
be
12 Insights Vol. 7
Move over “family game
night.” It’s time to dust
off those brain-teasing
board games and grab
a colleague because
research shows
that investing a little
time “playing” before
brainstorming, can pay
dividends later.
By Ba r ry Ku d row itz
How (Some) Board Games Can Help Us Be (More) Innovative
P
familiar with this concept, it is a nonlinear way of organizing, visualizing,
and/or generating ideas.6 A mind map
typically takes the form of a diagram
involving words and graphics that branch
out radially from a central concept. In this
case, the central concept is a toaster and
the player is making associations around it
such as bread, kitchen, breakfast, heating,
etc. The creative challenge for Player 1 is
to broaden his mind map to find closely
associated words that are not the ones on
the card.
Taboo
Meanwhile, Player 2 is engaging in a
The game Taboo is about getting your
very different creative process: convergent
partner to say a certain keyword without
thinking. Player 2 is hearing a string of
using a list of words that are commonly
seemingly unrelated words and phrases
associated with it. For example, Player 1
(such as “food pops out of it,” “don’t
would try to get Player 2 to say the word
put it in the bathtub,” and “it browns
“toaster” without using the words “bread,”
items”) and is trying to find the word that
“appliance,” and “heat.”
connects them all. Although Player 2 is
At first glance, you might not see how this
not aware of this, she is taking part in a
variation of a classic
test of creativity
called the Remote
Associates Test (RAT).
The RAT involves
finding a connective
link between a set
of three seemingly
unrelated words
that have a mutually
remote association.7
An example of a
set of words could
be: tap rain floor.
The challenge is
to find a word that
Figure 1. A basic mind map for a toaster showing how thoughts can diverge around a central concept.
can be paired with any
is creative, but it actually hits on some major of these three words in the set. For this
creative thought processes. Player 1, in this
given example, the word “dance” is an
case, is engaging in divergent thinking. This appropriate solution as in “tap dance,”
person is trying to envision everything that
“rain dance,” and “dance floor.”
can possibly be related to toasters; he is
making a mind map. For those who are not
lay allows us to escape reality for a
short time. It is a safe bubble in which we
pretend, imagine, and create. It allows us to
say and do things that we don’t typically say
and do. It’s no wonder that many studies
have found that playing makes people
more creative. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Below I analyze a
few popular board games to demonstrate
how their game play encourages innovative
thinking.
Illustrations by Barry Kurdowitz
Insights Vol. 7 13 How (Some) Board Games Can Help Us Be (More) Innovative
Apples to Apples
The game of Apples to
Apples is about choosing
a noun from a set of noun
cards that best describes
an adjective chosen
by another player. For
example Player 1 could
be holding a hand of
noun cards that includes
things like “beauty
pageant,” “the World’s
fair,” and “Frankenstein’s
monster.” If Player 2 turns
over an adjective card
that read “scary,” Player 1
would then choose a noun Figure 2. The remoteness of an association plays a role in the perception of creativity and humor. A very close association will be
obvious and thus not creative or humorous. A very distant association will be confusing. A creative or humorous response will
card from his set that he
typically have a non-obvious connection that is neither too distant nor too obvious to the audience, which results in an “Aha!” or
believes Player 2 would
“Haha!” moment. It is possible for a very distant/no connection association to illicit humor. This could be a result of expecting a
resolution and not finding one or finding humor in nonsense.
find most appropriately
described as “scary.”
conclusions about Player 2 based on
The heart of this
whatever
small observations he can
game is the ability to empathize with
make such as prior conversations, her
other people. For those in the design
personality, her dress, or her responses
industry, you may already be aware of
in
the game. Is she the type of person
how important empathy is for creating
that would be against beauty pageants?
successful products and services.
Is
she interested in classic horror
Designers have to understand their
literature? Is she afraid of large crowds?
potential users; they need to tap into
“For
This game also involves a skillset
the emotional and physical needs and
where creativity and humor overlap:
desires of their target audience. This
something to
the
ability
to
quickly
find
connections
typically involves extensive ethnographic
be creative
between seemingly unrelated things. In
research and observation. In the case
the realm of innovation this is called
of Apples to Apples, players who know
or funny, it
the Associative Theory of Creativity
each other well have a vast knowledge
7
needs to be
of each other’s preferences and opinions. , in the realm of comedy this is called
8
the
Incongruity
Theory
of
Humor
.
The game gets more challenging when
For something to be creative or funny, it unexpected
the players are not well acquainted.
needs to be unexpected but still make
In the aforementioned example,
but still make
sense, in other words the association has
where Player 2 reveals the “scary”
sense..."
to be distant enough to be non-obvious
adjective card, Player 1 must draw
14 Insights Vol. 7
How (Some) Board Games Can Help Us Be (More) Innovative
still appropriate for the given categories. If any
but not so distant that it is confusing. In this
two players have written the same response to a
example, when looking at a hand of noun cards,
Player 1 is searching for any connections between category, those responses are invalidated.
In an idea generation session, the first ideas we
these nouns and the word “scary.” In addition
to trying to empathize with Player 2, Player 1 is
think of for a given prompt/problem are typically
likely trying to find a connection that is not too
going to be the same ideas everyone thinks of
distant, but also not too obvious. A noun card that first, and thus not novel nor creative. If you
says “horror movies” might be too obvious of a
ask a group of people to associate on the word
play and therefore not creative, while a noun card “green” the majority of people will say “grass”.10
Scattergories discourages players from writing
like “pigeons” might be too distantly associated
and therefore confusing. A noun like “Spice Girls” “elephant” or “eagle” for “Animals that start with
the letter E.” Instead the game pushes players
or “dirty diaper” may have moderate levels of
association with “scary” to be deemed creative
to think of the less common, more novel “egret,”
and/or humorous.
“emu,” and “earthworm.”
In Scattergories the player with the most unique
responses is the winner. It turns out that in the
real world, the people with the most unique
Scattergories
In the game of Scattergories players
are given a time limit and a random
letter of the alphabet and must
come up with unique examples of
items beginning with that letter that
fit into a set of given categories. For
example, if the letter for the round
was “G,” Player 1 could write “Glue
stick” under the category “School
Supplies” or “Gremlin” under the
category “Fictional Characters.”
What I love about this game
is that it rewards two important
elements of creative thinking:
quantity and novelty. Many
researchers define creativity as
a combination of novelty and a
secondary quality measure such
as usefulness or appropriateness.7,
9
Novelty and Appropriateness
are exactly how to score points in
Scattergories. To win, players try to
have the most responses that are
Figure 3. This is a visualization of the popularity of “animals that start with E” as represented by a Google search
webpage result count. The head of the graph are likely the common responses that most people think of first.
novel to the group, but are also
The “long tail” is populated by a long series of less common items, which represents the more novel, creative
responses.
Insights Vol. 7 15 How (Some) Board Games Can Help Us Be (More) Innovative
responses are also winners. In my research, I have
found that the ability to quickly come up with many
ideas, is strongly correlated (r2=.82) with having many
creative ideas.11
There are some speculations on why this might
be. One theory is that people who are coming up
with many ideas are bounding through the common
thoughts allowing them to move on to the less
common ones. Another theory is that people who
come up with lots of ideas are less inhibited in their
thought process and therefore the ideas they come up
with are going to be less restrained. A final thought is
that people who are good at making associations are
going to come up with lots of ideas as well as lots of
non-obvious associations. In any case, having lots of
idea alternatives to choose from is bonus. As Emile
Chartier said “nothing is more dangerous than an idea
when it is the only one you have.”
E.B. White quoted “Humor can be dissected, as
a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the
innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific
mind.”12 I hope that I have not killed your love of
these classic games, but rather inspired you to play
them again with a new perspective.
Note
These games (Taboo, Apples to Apples and
Scattergories) have all received the Mensa Select
award, which is given each year to five board games
that are “original, challenging, and well designed.”
“Nothing
is more
dangerous
than an idea
when it is the
only one you
have."
References
1. Dansky, J.L. and Silverman. I.W., Effects of Play
on Associative Fluency in Preschool-Aged Children.
Developmental Psychology, 1973. 9(1): p. 38-43.
2. Lieberman, J.N., Playfulness: Its Relationship to
Imagination and Creativity. 1977: Academic Press
Inc.
3. Isen, A.M., K.A. Daubman, and G.P. Nowicki,
Positive Affect Facilitates Creative Problem-Solving.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987.
52(6): p. 1122-1131.
4. Berretta, S. and G. Privette, Influence of Play on
Creative-Thinking. Perceptual and Motor Skills,
1990. 71(2): p. 659-666.
5. Russ, S., Affect and Creativity: the Role of Affect
and Play in the Creative Process. 1993, Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wyver SR and Spence SH. 1999. Play and divergent
problem solving: Evidence supporting a reciprocal
relationship. Early Education and Development,
10(4): 419 – 444
6. Buzan, T. and B. Buzan, The mind map book : how
to use radiant thinking to maximize your brain’s
untapped potential. 1993, New York: Plume. 320 p.
7. Mednick, S.A., The associative basis of the creative
process. Psychol Rev, 1962. 69: p. 220-32.
8. Keith-Spiegel, P., Early Conceptions of Humor:
Varieties and Issues, in The Psychology of Humor,
J.H. Goldstein and P.E. McGhee, Editors. 1972,
Academic Press: New York. p. 4-39.
9. Dean, D.L., et al., Identifying quality, novel,
and creative ideas: Constructs and scales for
idea evaluation. Journal of the Association for
Information Systems, 2006. 7(10): p. 646-698.
10. Johnson, S. (2010) Where Good Ideas Come From:
The Natural History of Innovation. Riverhead
Books.
11. Kudrowitz, Barry and Wallace, David. “Assessing the
Quality of Ideas from Prolific, Early Stage Product
Ideation.” Journal of Engineering Design: Special
Issue on Design Creativity. Jan 2012. In Press
12. White, E.B. and K.S.A. White, A subtreasury
of American humor. 1941, New York,: CowardMcCann. xxxii p., 2 l., 3-814 p.
Barry Kudrowitz, Ph.D.
Prof. Product Design
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
16 Insights Vol. 7