Fence the Playground
What is the Fence the Playground card?
Foster freedom by setting some rules.
Creativity is all about exploring new possibilities, but a blank canvas can paralyse you. Deliberately introducing some rules actually gives you more freedom, liberating you to push your thinking further without getting lost in the woods.
How to use the Fence the Playground card
Fence the Playground
1. Briefly explain the concept of constraints:
• Content constraint: “we won’t use facts or data to persuade people”.
• Audience constraint: “this idea is exclusively for [cosiness connoisseurs]”.
• Format constraint: “you’re making a quiz”.
These are just example categories. A constraint is simply any rule you decide to follow when developing and launching your idea.
2. Ask participants to list as many helpful constraints as they can think of in 5 minutes.
3. Use Invest Your PipCoins to identify the constraint that’s most likely to keep ideas on-track.
4. Check that everyone understands the prioritised constraint, and remind them that this will guide ideas for the rest of the session.
If you can make the constraint even clearer (by polishing the language or making it even more specific), that’s always helpful.
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Fence the Playground is one of 54 ideation workshop cards inside the Idea Tactics card deck.
Ditch creative block and unleash big ideas with your team.