Until relatively recently, managers could succeed without giving the notion of creativity or creative problem solving a second thought. After all, concrete financial and operational procedures make it relatively easy to solve problems. 

But unlike operational skills learned at University, on site or on the production floor, creative problem solving is a skill many professionals must learn on their own. Fortunately, it is teachable.

WHAT IS CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING?

In its simplest form, creative problem solving is a procedure that helps you go from goal (or problem) to action (or resolution). 

"Many businesses hire outside consultants, who make the brainstorming process too rigid," says Dianne Volek, MD of InterComm South Africa, a company known for innovative solutions. "They sit in a formal boardroom around a big table, in the same offices where they deal with budgets and the administrative daily tasks. A young and enthusiastic consultant demands they "trust the process" and demands that everyone takes part in silly games to "relax".

The second mistake is they make it TOO informal. Since managers don't want to "waste" their morning, they have their cell phones on hand, continually checking emails, sending SMS's or even playing games.

The moment staff see that key decision-makers don't take creative problem solving seriously, they lose interest knowing that any decisions made will be ignored the moment the "bosberaad" is over.

IDENTIFY THE [REAL] GOAL OR PROBLEM

"Clarifying the problem is probably one of the most crucial steps in the process," she stresses. Sometimes you need to take a step back and reaffirm the correct problem," she says. 

The first step in the problem-solving process is to define and understanding your problem. Problem statements can be on a general topic, such as: "How can we improve service to the business units?" Or, they can be more specific, such as "How can we reduce cash-flow cycle time from 200 days to 50?" . You would be surprised how often the problem turns out be be quite different to what (at least some) people first thought.

The first step in the problem-solving process is to spend time correctly defining and understanding your problem.

GATHER DATA

Once the problem is identified, gather information about it. If you want to improve service to the business units, ask questions about why this is important, who is involved, what solutions have already been tried, what stumbling blocks there are and what improved service will look like.

CLARIFY THE PROBLEM

Once you know more about who and what is involved in solving the problem, you will want to restate the problem as specifically as you can. For instance, you might ask yourself, "In what ways can we begin to improve service to the business units in the next month without adding staff and without disrupting current operations?" 

GENERATE IDEAS

This is the hardest part. With a well-defined problem in mind, you can begin to generate ideas. The goal of this phase is to create as many solutions to the problem as possible. Do not stop at just eight to 10 ideas; force yourself to come up with 20, 30 more.

One note of caution: be sure to defer judgment. Besides really annoying and upsetting people it is non-productive. And remember a raised eyebrow or a snide smile can do as much damage as open laughter.

At this stage, the goal is not to evaluate ideas, but to create them. The silliest suggestions often inspire the most intelligent solutions. See below for methods to generate ideas.

STRENGTHEN POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Once the flip chart, blackboard or notebook is filled with a list of ideas, Dianne suggests using the traditional SWOT analysis – something that most managers are comfortable with. The group lists the "strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats," of the most promising ideas.

Take an idea and state it in the form of a specific idea phrase, starting with "What I see us doing is…" For example, "What I see us doing is developing a questionnaire to send to the business units to determine their financial needs." 

1. List at least three strengths about that idea. 
2. List the opportunities or future gains, that might result if the idea were implemented. For example, "If we distributed a questionnaire, we would have a better idea how to provide service to the business units." 
3. List the weaknesses or threats that could result from the idea, stating the concern as a problem. For example, if you are worried about the cost of producing, distributing and evaluating questionnaires, you might state your concern as, "How can we reduce the costs associated with the questionnaires?"
4. Generate a list of ways to overcome your concerns about the idea. For instance, one way you might overcome the cost concern is to distribute the questionnaire online.
5. Develop an improved solution statement, i.e., "What I now see us doing is developing and distributing an online questionnaire so that business unit leaders can tell us what kind of financial consulting they need."

ADD TASKS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND TIMING TO YOUR PLAN

Now that you know what must be done, you will need to decide the tasks it involves, who will perform them, what the deadlines are and who is ultimately responsible.

IDEA GENERATION

I often use items around the room to inspire solutions. This takes a LOT of practice and some seriously lateral thinking, but it works.

An example: look at your watch...

• It is round, a circle, endless – is this a problem that has a cycle that starts earlier or has negative effects later in the process than you imagine.
• Look at the hands – straight lines moving out from the center in every direction – can you use the dual approach – breaking the problem into two more solvable ones.
• The links of the strap are linear – step by step but also moving in a circle.
• Watches have batteries (automated) or winders (manual). Is there a way to solve this with automation, or by bringing in low cost labour like students. And that’s just a watch!

If you find your team is not particularly creative (or after you think you’ve exhausted the top of the mind solutions), put a list (words or pictures) on the boardroom wall that includes shapes, colours, objects, countries etc and start a random word generation exercise. It relaxes everyone, gets them laughing and joking, and that’s exactly the mood you need to be in to get good solutions.

(Just thinking about a problem can put one in the worst possible mood for creative thinking.)

Scribble all the words generated on a big sheet of paper and get the team to come up with one idea, linked however tenuously, to that word. 80% will be completely nonsense, but it’s the 20% that will spark off some new trains of thought. 

And HAVE FUN with it! It's a sure fire way to inspire creative and innovative thinking.