Chapter 4: Creativity and Problem Solving

Chapter 4: Creativity and Problem Solving

What is creativity? 

• Break away from traditional thinking
• Includes something that is artistic/craft oriented
• Creativity is a way of thinking
• Creative thinking is easy to apply to marketing, campaigns, product design, advertising
• Decision making, problem solving etc, requires us to think differently to traditional methods 
• Highly competitive world – new ideas are essential in order to stay ahead

Routine thinking: 

• Constraints us by limiting possibilities
• Your brain naturally wants to read from left to right

Critical thinking: 

• Allows us to analyse – follow a more rational/defined process to solve problems
• Follows after the generation of a creative idea, will enable the solution to become viable

Conventional solutions: 

• What is generally done/believed
• Not always the most practical
• Becoming more important to look for unconventional solutions
• Solutions that work in one company may not work in another – essential to look at all three environments (micro, market, macro)

Power of teamwork is very important in creative thinking/problem solving – multiple inputs invariably leads to better solutions

Analyse the way we think: This process is called Metacognition 

Metacognition: Awareness/understanding of one’s own thought process

Creative-thinking exercise: 

• Often called lateral thinking – correct name is Rebus

Tangram: 

• A tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle
• You have seven pieces of tans
• At its simplest it builds into a perfect square

Rules: 

• You have to use all seven tans each time
• Must lie next to each other on a flat surface (not allowed to overlap)

Problem Solving: 

• Solutions are not necessarily logical/ obvious at first glance
• Resultant problems arising/ possible solutions are becoming more varied by the day

The problem solving loop: 

• Identify the problem
• Explore information/create ideas
• Select the best idea
• Build/test the idea
• Evaluate the results

Types of problems: 

• Instinctive –we do not consciously choose a problem-solving technique to apply
• Problems becoming more complex, the choice of technique could be instrumental in determining – come up with the best possible solution
• Amount of time, effort, resources needed – shows how complicated it is/ impact on the business
• Problems cannot be solved before they are properly identified
• Only once the problem has been solved, can the process advance to exploring options, deciding on the best ideas, implementing and then evaluating
• This process/ ‘problem solving loop’ has to be repeated more than once – satisfactory result

A problem: Something with a defined solution

A dilemma: No satisfactory solution – any one of the choices will have a cost involved

Major problems arise in two ways: 

Predictable problems: 

• Slow run-up circumstances
• See a problem developing

Unexpected problems: 

• Hit you out of the blue
• Need for serious crisis management
• Floods, fires, robberies
• Astute managers will plan ahead and have risk management procedures/contingency plans in place beforehand

Problem solving techniques:

Force field analysis: 

• A tool that is used to identify/ analyse the positive factors of a situation that help and the negative factors that hinder the organisation
• Useful technique – looking at all the forces for and against a decision
• A specialised method of weighing pros and cons

                                 This technique helps you decide whether your project is viable  

Force field analysis: 

• Describe your plan – middle of the page
• List all forces for change in one column – left
• List all forces against change in one column – right
• Assign a score to each force (1-weak) (5-strong)

Scamper: 

• You have to have a base
• A technique used to spark creativity – help overcome challenges
• A general purpose checklist – idea spurring checklist
• Based on the notion that everything new is a modification of something that already exists

What does scamper stand for? 

S – Substitute à what can you substitute? What or who can you use instead?

C – Combine à what can you combine or bring together?

A – Adapt à what can you adapt for use as a solution?

M – Modify à can you modify/change the item in some way

P – Put to other uses à what other/new ways could this be used?

E – Eliminate à what can you get rid of?

R – Rearrange à what could you rearrange or change around?

Delphi technique: 

• Process of getting experts in – geographically separated to interact/work on a common project (internet, skype, email, electronic means)
• This technique has a variety of uses
• Primary advantage: a group of people with common interests/ expertise can meet/discuss an issue electronically
• Allows participants to stay anonymous – communicating only through text from protected email addresses
• Sessions are run by facilitators – organise the logistics of the process
• Facilitators will pose the questions and determine the formality
• Often used to avoid the problems of negative group dynamics (advantage)
• Open to manipulation (disadvantage) – facilitators who can filter information, send out only what they want participants to use in coming to a final decision

Indigenous Approach: 

• Uses local knowledge, cultures, traditions, vocabulary to solve problems
• Understanding locals and their needs is imperative – custom made solutions
• Important to understand the local culture/ be aware of indigenous approaches
• Adhering to such traditions show respect for the locals/ a willingness to work within their context

Problem solving in teamwork: 

• Teams are invariably established in order to solve problems
• When there is a complex problem, a team might choose to use a specific technique (Delphi / Force field analysis)
• Important to monitor progress an evaluate the success
• Project Management/ Conflict Management are formal structures of problem solving
• Problem solving is usually stressful/ causes conflict due to differing opinions/experience

Creative and problem-solving careers: 

• Content Creator: Popular career using YouTube – make a living off of adverts featured in their videos
• Character Rigger: Makes the skeleton for character models – games/movies
• Character Designer: Takes concept art from artists – digitises it into 3D or 2D models
• Character Animator: Finished model from the character rigger – sets up
• pre-recorded actions (running, jumping, fighting movements)
• Special effects: Create anything you can imagine out of nothing – using software/ green screens

Sciences, business, language are following closely behind to keep up with changing trends and new challenges