Creativity Exercise 2 - Ideation

Moving on to exercise number 2 in Regina Pacelli's Whole Lotta Creativity Going On, the author give a scenario and the challenge is to complete the scenario with possible explanations.

Scenario: 

A woman in an expensive blue dress ran out of a restaurant and got into a cab which then raced away.

Possible Explanations

1. A loved one died.
2. She skipped out on the bill.
3. She was an undercover cop on a sting.
4. She was on her period and had a stain on her dress.
5. She had diarrhea.
6. Her date proposed and she said "no".
7. It was a company event to which the dress code was all white attire, she didn't get the memo.
8. There was a bomb threat.
9. She spotted an ex-lover with her best friend.
10. She just felt like running.
11. She was at the wrong restaurant.
12. She was late for work. 
13. 'Emergency phone call.
14. 'Sick kid at school.
15. 'Stood up by her date
16. 'Someone went into labor.
17. 'Her home alarm system sent an alert of an intruder.
18. 'She forgot her wallet.
19. 'She forgot the stove on at home.
20. 'Her pet escaped the house.

I began to have struggle with this exercise after number eleven. When I began to struggle, I started to enlist the help of friends and family members for ideas. What I discovered is that most of the times, we all came up with variations of the same ten to twelve ideas. 

Eventually, with help, I was able to get up to the requested 20 separate possible explanations. I don't like the last eight.

Given more time and more diverse perspectives, I have no doubt that this list would be longer and more varied.