Practice Creative Thinking

"A barrier to creative thinking is that many people have no clear definition of creativity.

Creativity means looking at the same information as everyone else

and seeing something different."

~ Michael Michalko

Scientific research has shown that a frequent playful practice of our ability to think laterally, increases our creative (problem-solving) skills. Skills that are highly needed to (co-)create new authentic, resilient and sustainable approaches to the challenges that our organisations, communities and societies are confronted with. Lateral thinking puzzles challenge our chaordic capacity to spot patterns in chaos and/or to break-through patterns of traditional order.

Chaordic Puzzle #19

(20 February 2012)

You have to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires. The second is full of tigers that haven’t eaten in 3 years. The third is full of assassins with loaded machine guns. Which room should you choose?

Chaordic Puzzle #18

(6 February 2012)

During a school lunch break, ten kids are discussing after school jobs. In particular, they would like to know their average monthly salary (for the ten of them), but no one wants to admit openly exactly what they make. Can you devise a way for them to calculate their average (mean) salary without anyone having to tell anyone else what their individual salaries are?

Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #17

(20 January 2012)

What occurs twice in a lifetime, but once in a year, twice in a week but never in a day? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #16

(11 January 2012)

What row of numbers comes next in this series?

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221

Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #15

(28 November 2011)

Three switches outside a windowless room are connected to three light bulbs inside the room. How can you determine which switch is connected to which bulb if you may enter the room only once? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #14

(21 November 2011)

An Arab sheikh tells his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose camel is slower will win. The brothers, after wandering aimlessly for days, ask a wise man for advice. After hearing the advice they jump on the camels and race as fast as they can to the city. What does the wise man say? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #13

(14 November 2011)

Today he is there to trip you up,

And he will torture you tomorrow,

Yet he is also there to ease the pain,

When you are lost in grief and sorrow.

Who is 'he'? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #12a

(8 November 2011)

Which of the following statements is true?

1) Exactly one of these ten statements is false.

2) Exactly two of these ten statements are false.

3) Exactly three of these ten statements are false.

4) Exactly four of these ten statements are false.

5) Exactly five of these ten statements are false.

6) Exactly six of these ten statements are false.

7) Exactly seven of these ten statements are false.

8) Exactly eight of these ten statements are false.

9) Exactly nine of these ten statements are false.

10) Exactly ten of these ten statements are false.

Chaordic Puzzle #12b: What happens if you remove the word 'Exactly' from all the statements? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #11

(31 October 2011)

Three people check into a hotel room. The bill is $30 so they each pay $10. After they go to the room, the hotel's cashier realizes that the bill should have only been $25. So he gives $5 to the bellhop and tells him to return the money to the guests. The bellhop notices that $5 can't be split evenly between the three guests, so he keeps $2 for himself and then gives the other $3 to the guests. Now the guests, with their dollars back, have each paid $9 for a total of $27. And the bellhop has pocketed $2. So there is $27 + $2 = $29 accounted for. But the guests originally paid $30. What happened to the other dollar? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #10

(24 October 2011)

Consider a road with two cars, at a distance of 100 kilometres, driving towards each other. The left car drives at a speed of forty kilometers per hour and the right car at a speed of sixty kilometers per hour. A bird starts at the same location as the right car and flies at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour. When it reaches the left car it turns its direction, and when it reaches the right car it turns its direction again to the opposite, etcetera.The question: what is the total distance that the bird has traveled at the moment that the two cars have reached each other? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #9

(17 October 2011)

Let's assume there are approximately 6,000,000,000 (6 billion) people on Earth. What would you estimate to be the result, if you multiply together the number of fingers on every person’s left-hand? (For the purpose of this exercise, thumbs count as fingers, so five fingers per hand.) If you cannot estimate the number then try to guess how long the number would be. Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #8

(10 October 2011)

An archeologist proudly told that he had found four silver coins which, according to the inscription "649 B.C.”, should now be 2660 years old. The press considered him a fraud. Why are they so certain? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #7

(3 October 2011)

Shown on the left are four men buried up to their necks in the ground. They cannot move, so they can only look forward. Between A and B is a brick wall which cannot be seen through.They all know that between them they are wearing four hats: two black and two white, but they do not know what color they are wearing. Each of them knows where the other three men are buried. In order to avoid being shot, one of them must call out to the executioner the color of his hat. If they get it wrong, everyone will be shot. They are not allowed to talk to each other and have 10 minutes to figure it out. After one

minute, one of them calls out.

Question: Which one of them calls out? Why is he 100% certain of the color of his hat? Solution

This is not a trick question. There are no outside influences nor other ways of communicating. They cannot move and are buried in a straight line; A & B can only see their respective sides of the wall, C can see B, and D can see B & C.

Chaordic Puzzle #6

(26 September 2011)

A man puts his car in front of a hotel in Amsterdam. He immediately knows that he is bankrupt. What is going on? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #5

(19 September 2011)

What can you hold in your right hand, but not in your left? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #4

(12 september 2011)

We love it more than life,

We fear it more than death,

The wealthy want for it,

The poor have it in plenty,

If you eat it, you die.

What is it? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #3

(5 September 2011)

There is a factory with a door. The boss tells his workers never to open this door for they will see something they're not supposed to see. One day, when their boss is out, the workers do open the door. What do they see? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #2

(29 August 2011)

The one who made it didn't want it.

The one who bought it didn't need it.

The one who used it never saw it.

What is it? Solution

Chaordic Puzzle #1

(22 August 2011)

Mary is at the first day of her internship at a multinational company. She's asked to deliver a handwritten message to one of the directors, John, while he's in a meeting of the Board of Directors. Mary doesn't yet know who John is or what he looks like. Afraid to make a mistake on her first day at work and too embarrassed to ask, she walks nervously into the crowded meeting room. Once she walks into the room, she immediately knows who John is and delivers the message successfully. Without any form of communication, name tags or badges. How is this possible? Solution