YES, AND…? BY ALI HACKMAN

Yes, and it could have wings! Yes, and it could be purple with polka dots! Yes, and it could have six legs! …

This is an exercise that a great teacher of mine had our class do one day. He prompted us with a small concept that we had to expand it into a more complex idea. He gave us 45 seconds to come up with as many ideas as possible, but once a new idea was said, the only way to contribute another was to affirm the idea said before and go off from there. Every response had to begin with the phrase “Yes, and…” as well as be validated as a possible route for the end result. After the time limit was up, we looked at our list of ideas and were shocked with where it had ended up. The idea had expanded into something that we had never thought of in the beginning, and ended up becoming a successful end product.

Creativity is full of “yes and…”s. We have to push ourselves to be uncomfortable when exploring new ideas or thoughts. We have to be nonjudgmental and allow ourselves to go places that may not be the norm. All of us have the potential to be creative; we just need to push ourselves to find it.