Apples

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Demonstrate how producing volume pushes thinking past obvious initial concepts into varied interpretations.

Use it when: Use before an ideation session or when a team feels stuck relying on initial, conventional solutions.

Skip it when: Skip when the upcoming task requires analytical filtering rather than divergent generation, or when drawing tasks cause excessive anxiety.

Group arrangement: Individual drawing work followed by comparisons in small groups of 3 (adjusting with pairs or quartets so nobody is left alone), concluding with whole-room debrief.

Timing: Project of How suggests 10 to 30 minutes with 10 to 15 minutes of drawing. UWT sets a 20-minute run with 10 minutes of active drawing to balance generation and reflection.

Materials and tools

• 1 gridded drawing sheet per person (pre-drawn or printed grid of 16 empty squares on standard A4 or letter paper)
• 1 black marker or felt-tip pen per person
• Timer

Before participants arrive

1. Print or pre-draw grid sheets containing 16 numbered boxes arranged top to bottom, left to right.
2. Distribute one grid sheet and one marker at each seat.

Say this to open

Take the sheet and pen in front of you. In a moment, you will have ten minutes to draw as many different pictures of an apple as you can, working from top to bottom, row by row. Fill each box with a distinct depiction. For example, a drawing might show a whole fruit, a core, a brand logo, or an apple pie. What counts as an apple is entirely up to your interpretation, and I cannot provide further rules or definitions. You must work in complete silence. Start drawing now.

How to run it

1. Set constraint and start 2 minutes

   Distribute sheets face up. Speak the opening script clearly. Remind participants to work top to bottom and row by row in silence. Start the timer for 10 minutes. Do not provide hints, rules, or evaluations.

2. Draw variations in silence 10 minutes

   Participants sketch quietly, filling one square after another. If someone stops or claims they are finished early, quietly gesture for them to keep attempting new variations until time expires. Do not validate or critique any work.

3. Compare in small groups 4 minutes

   Call time. Form small groups of 3 (use pairs or quartets so no one is alone). Ask groups to place sheets side by side. Have them notice where drawings shifted from standard whole fruit to less common ideas, and which ideas appeared across everyone's earliest boxes.

4. Debrief patterns with room 4 minutes

   Gather attention. Ask two or three volunteers to describe what shifted between their first three boxes and their final boxes. Then ask one person how this pattern applies to generating solutions on your current project. Summarize the link between producing volume and finding non-obvious ideas.

Debrief questions

• Looking at your first three boxes compared to your last three boxes, what changed about how you interpreted an apple?
• What happened when you felt completely out of ideas around box five or six?
• How does this volume of variations apply to generating options for our actual project?

Finished output: Individual completed sheets displaying a visible progression of apple interpretations from conventional to abstract.

Remote

Provide the printable 16-box grid sheet or instruct participants to fold a blank paper page into 16 rectangles. Run the 10-minute drawing phase on physical paper with webcams on and microphones muted. For sharing, place participants into breakout rooms of 2 or 3. Participants hold their sheets up to their cameras or photograph them to post in the chat.

Hybrid

In-person participants draw on paper sheets; remote participants draw on identical printed or folded sheets. During small-group sharing, place remote participants into virtual breakout rooms of 2 or 3, while in-person participants form local groups of 2, 3, or 4. Conduct the final debrief via whole-room shared audio.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may write descriptive words or labels inside boxes instead of drawing if sketching is uncomfortable.
• Anyone may choose to observe silently without displaying their sheet or speaking during the debrief.

If the session gets stuck

Participants ask whether specific interpretations like logos, tree branches, or applesauce count.

Refuse to give rules or definitions. Say, 'What counts as an apple is entirely up to your interpretation.'

Participants stop drawing after 3 or 4 minutes claiming they have exhausted all possibilities.

Neutrally remind the room that the clock is still running and invite them to keep trying without offering hints.

Terms used here

• Divergent generation: Creating a large quantity of diverse ideas or variations before selecting or evaluating them.