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Climb the Ladder of Meaning

Activity: The Ladder of Meaning

Learning Goal: To help learners develop their ability to move from concrete to abstract.

When you get stuck trying to solve a problem, you are most likely trying to solve the wrong problem. By moving between the concrete and the abstract, you can discover which problems are a better fit for where you are and what you want to achieve–otherwise you may discover you were moving down a narrow path that wouldn’t take you where you want to go.

This activity is an invitation to test the hypothesis that exploring multiple levels of abstraction helps you discover what really matters and better ways to get there. It activates two types of thinking that will expand your abilities to make sense of the world: imagination and divergent thinking.

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