Creativity Exercise - Improv Golf...

Angie and I walked around Sonoma today, and found ourselves at a mini-putt course.
Humility prevents me from mentioning who won... but it reminded me to share a creativity practice with you.

In my mind, creativity isn't a part-time practice. It's something you need to practice all the time, so that you can rely on it on short notice.

To that end, Angie and I sometimes invent our own games.
Kids do this all the time and it's a great practice. If forces you to move beyond just being creative within the rules to being creative with the rules.

Our favorite improv game is 'host-rules mini-putt'.
We have a putter, a ball, and a portable putting cup. For each hole, players take turns designing the course.

We played 'host-rules mini-putt' (this really needs a better name!) on this past Tuesday night with Brent and Ken at the Sonoma Valley Inn. The event took place in our hotel room.
For one hole, Ken put the hole in a bedside table drawer, set up a ramp with my Leadership Challenge Facilitator's Guide, and defined the tee-off point.
Each golfer needed to launch the ball up the ramp, into the drawer, and then into the hole.
Not an easy task - as demonstrated by Ken's score of 30 (exceeded only by Brent's 32!).

On the next hole, I had us putt from the bathroon, under the couch, and then to the hole.
And on we went. Each player had a chance to design a hole, knowing they would be the first to play it.

I've also done this with Frisbee golf - "throw around the birch tree, to the left of the lamp post, and land on the 2nd sidewalk square" - with great success.

This game is a simple way to remember that the only rules are the ones we decide on.