One of the most liberating creative thinking exercises is to imagine what some inspirational character would do. How would they tackle the situation?

FREE On-demand 5 X 5 mins
Explore 5 ways to get your creative juices flowing and overcome creative blocks, including Unlikely Hero role-play.

How to role-play an Unlikely Hero?

This is an excellent group exercise, which helps to bring out imagination and overcome people’s insecurities. It is based on simply asking: what would “X” do? With X being a well-known real or fictional character, with interesting personality traits, skills and even superpowers.

Pick up to three different characters, preferably ones which would be as far-fetch for the situation. You could even ask participants to nominate their greatest heroes and villains.

Set the scene by defining the problem or challenge at hand. Taking each hero in turn, ask the question “what would “X” do and concoct the story of how they would solve the issue.

For example, ask:

• What would Wonderwoman do?
• What would Hans Solo do?
• What would Freddie Mercury do?
• What would Marie Curie do?
• What would Einstein do?

Spend no more than five minutes on each character’s story. Then reflect on what possibilities or ideas the exercise has sparked.