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 operations, which managers learn in either 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).
"When you are faced with a recurring problem, and when you
have problems that are different from any you have faced before,
that’s when you need to get more creative," says Dianne
Volek, MD of InterComm South Africa, a company known for their innovative
solutions.
"One of the mistakes people make is that they make the process
too rigid," she says. For instance, people will think they
can never be able to come up with ideas when they are generating
problem statements. Another problem is that people will jump from
the goal to generating ideas without having a well-defined 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.
IDENTIFY THE [REAL] GOAL OR PROBLEM
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."
List at least three strengths about that idea.
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."
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?"
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.
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."
DEVELOP 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.
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