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



 

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