Enterprise
Academy
Master Class
Creative Ideas in
Problem Solving
Dr. John Davies
Salford Business School
Professor John Davies PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons), FCQI, CQP, FHEA, MISBE 13 years experience in Manufacturing and Service Industries:
Chemical Processing, Building Chemicals, Paint and Adhesives Manufacture
Building Services Multinationals and SMEs
Salford: Professor of Quality Management and Business Development (18
years at Salford) Salford Business School Director of Knowledge Transfer SIFE Business Advisory Board member
External: Director of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
(ISBE) Former Chair of the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) Advisory
Council
Maxwell 316, 0161 295 2479, [email protected]
AGENDA
ProblemsEffective Problem SolvingProblem Solving MethodologyAnalytical and CreativeCreative ThinkingBarriers to CreativeCreative ThinkingTechniques for CreativityCreativity
GOAL OR OBJECTIVE - SOMETHING WHICH IS TO BE ACHIEVED
OBSTACLE OR OBSTRUCTION - SOMETHING THAT STOPS US ACHIEVING THE GOAL
PROBLEM SOLVING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES SHOULD ALWAYS BE USED WHEREVER THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY
FOR IMPROVEMENT
DEFINITION OF A PROBLEM
GOAL + OBSTACLE = PROBLEM
Believe in Improvement
• Attitude of mind - constructive dissatisfaction (there is always a better way)
• NOT “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”!!!
• Why not “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?
JUMPING TO A SOLUTION BEFORE SUFFICIENTLY UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
IMPLEMENTING THE FIRST SOLUTION THAT COMES TO MIND
RARELY COLLECTING AND ANALYSING THE RELEVANT DATA
NOT USING THE APPROPRIATE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
NOT PLANNING AND COMMUNICATING ACTIONS
NOT ‘FOLLOWING-UP’ IMPLEMENTED ACTIONS CHECKING FOR EFFECTIVENESS AND LESSONS LEARNED
THERE IS A NEED FOR A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING:
OURPERFORMANCE
ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
TEAM PROBLEMSOLVING APPROACH
PROBLEM SOLVING METHODOLOGY
INFORMATION/DATA TOOLS AND TECHNIQUESWE CANNOT SOLVE A PROBLEM UNTIL WE HAVE THE HARD FACTS AND DATA ASSOCIATED WITH IT. WITHOUT DATA WE ARE MERELY GUESSING AT THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM, AND OUR EFFORTS TO SOLVE IT ARE HAMPERED BY OUR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
WHEN WE ADDRESS COMPLEX PROBLEMS, WE ARE OFTEN FACED WITH A GREAT DEAL OF INFORMATION.TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES HELP US ORGANISE ,UNDERSTAND AND INTERPRET DATA AND FACTS
WITHIN OUR ORGANISATION IT IS HELPFUL TO USE COMMON OR UNIVERSAL PROBLEM SOLVING METHODOLOGIES FOR WHICH ALL INDIVIDUALS CAN EFFECTIVELY USE AND INTER-RELATE WITH OTHERS, ESPECIALLY IN TEAMWORK ACTIVITIES. THE BASIS IS TO ADOPT A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH BY FOLLOWING A LOGICAL SEQUENCE OF PROBLEM-SOLVING STEPS
THE DEMING CYCLE (ALSO KNOWN AS THE SHEWHART CYCLE)
PLAN
DO
ACT
CHECK
FOUR STAGECONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENTPROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS/CHANGE MODEL
1. PLAN A CHANGE
2. TRY IT OUT
3. STUDY THE RESULTS
4. ADOPT CHANGE OR RUN IN SEVERALDIFFERENTENVIRONMENTS
THIS CYCLE IS THE DRIVING FORCE FOR INNOVATION AND IMPROVEMENT
10
STAGE 1. SELECT AND IDENTIFY PROBLEM
STAGE 2. COLLECT RELEVANT DATA
STAGE 3. ANALYSE DATA & FIND ROOT CAUSES
STAGE 4. GENERATE POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
STAGE 5. SELECT THE OPTIMUM SOLUTION
STAGE 6. PLAN THE ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN
STAGE 7. TEST/TRY-OUT PLANNED ACTIONS
STAGE 8. IMPLEMENT AND MONITOR
PROBLEM SOLVING METHODOLOGY
NEVER ENDING IMPROVEMENTNEVER ENDING IMPROVEMENT
THE MOST FREQUENTLY USED TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
TOGETHER WITH SUGGESTED STAGE OF PROBLEM SOLVING METHODOLOGY
BRAINSTORMING--------- CAUSE & EFFECT--------- SELECTION GRID---------- FLOW CHARTING---------- RUN
CHARTS---------------- MIND
MAPS------------------ TREE DIAGRAMS---------- FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS CONTROL CHARTS-------- PARETO CHARTS---------- HISTOGRAMS--------------- SCATTER DIAGRAMS----
STAGE: 1, 3, 4, & 6 STAGE: 3 & 4 STAGE: 1 & 5 STAGE: 2 & 3 STAGE: 2, 7 & 8 STAGE: 2, 3, & 4 STAGE: 3, 4, & 6 STAGE: 6 & 8 STAGE: 2, 7 & 8 STAGE: 2 STAGE: 2, 7 & 8 STAGE: 2, 7 & 8
HISTOGRAM
SCATTER DIAGRAM
RUN CHART
MANY PROBLEMS ARE MORE COMPLEX THAN THEY FIRST APPEAR
THERE IS USUALLY MORE THAN ONE PROBLEM
THERE IS USUALLY MORE THAN ONE SOLUTION
MOST PROBLEMS HAVE ASPECTS OF INTERDEPENDENCE AND INTERRELATIONSHIP
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES HELP MAKE SENSE OF INFORMATION WHICH IS AVAILABLE FOR ANALYSIS
THE MORE COMPLEX PROBLEMS HAVE USUALLY BEEN AROUND FOR A LONG TIME
THE NEED FOR TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
ANALYTICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING
LEFT-HAND BRAINCOGNITIVE
RIGHT-HAND BRAINAFFECTIVE
OBJECTIVELOGICNUMBERSSEQUENCESTRUCTURALANALYSISMATHEMATICALWORDSCOMPUTELINEARCATEGORIESFACTSVERBALSPECIFICCONSCIOUS
SUBJECTIVEEMOTIONALPICTURESRANDOMSPONTANEOUSINTUITIONARTISTICVISUALCREATIVEIMAGINATIONWHOLEFEELINGSNON-VERBALGENERALUNCONSCIOUSTHE BRAIN
INTRODUCTION TO ANALYTICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING
DIVERGE
CONVERGE
CREATIVE THINKING
ANALYTICAL THINKING
LOTS OF IDEAS GENERATED
PROCESS OF EVALUATION
SOLUTION
ANALYTICAL THINKING INCLUDES SKILLS SUCH AS ORDERING, COMPARING,
CONTRASTING, EVALUATING AND SELECTING. IT PROVIDES A
LOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR PROBLEM SOLVING AND HELPS
TO SELECT THE OPTIMUM ALTERNATIVE BY NARROWING
DOWN THE RANGE OF POSSIBILITIES – A CONVERGENT
PROCESS
EFFECTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING REQUIRES A MIXTURE OF
ANALYTICAL AND CREATIVETHINKING SKILLS
SIX HONEST SERVING MEN
‘I kept six honest serving men They taught me all I knew, Their names were What and Why and When and Where and How and Who’
Rudyard Kipling
PROBLEM SOLVING
JOIN THE DOTS WITH 4 STRAIGHT LINES WITHOUTTAKING PENCIL OFF THE PAPER
STIFLED DURING CHILDHOOD LACK OF SELF CONFIDENCE FEAR OF CRITICISM JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS PROBLEM HOPPING DISTRUST OF INTUITIVE THINKING OVERDEVELOPED CRITICAL JUDGEMENT POOR TIME MANAGEMENT ALIENATION MINDSETS
BARRIERS TO CREATIVE THINKING (1)
I must never make a mistakeI’m not creativeI must follow the rulesI must always be practical and
logicalI haven’t got the time to be
creative
BARRIERS TO CREATIVE THINKING (2)
ASSUMPTIONSExample 1
• A man is driving a black car on a blackened road without street lights and without headlights on his car. A black cat crosses the road right in front of him and still he is able to apply the brakes to save the black cat. How come?
• Assumptions?
ASSUMPTIONSExample 2
• A donkey is tied to a rope 6 feet long and there is a bale of hay 8 feet away. How can the donkey get to the hay if he does not bite or undo the rope?
• Assumptions?
MINDSETS ARE BASED UPON:
PRECONCEPTIONS PERSONAL PREJUDICES VALUES ATTITUDES BELIEFS
EVERYONE NEEDS MINDSETS TO MAKE JUDGEMENTS ABOUT EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES. HOWEVER, THEY MUST BE CHALLENGED TO ENSURE THEY ARE NOT INHIBITING CREATIVITY
MINDSETS OR PARADIGMS
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
In the 1960s, the Swiss watch industry had a 65% share in the world market. The industry was approached with the idea of quartz technology. They rejected the innovation. The idea was taken up and developed by the Americans and Japanese, who went on to capture a huge amount of the Swiss world market. What had allowed this to happen was that the industry had developed a mindset that the watch was a precision-engineered product and they could not get away from that view of their product
BREAKING OUT OF MINDSETS OR PARADIGMS
4 matches
Solution
Brainstorming Creative Idea Generation
• Idea generation in any context
• Crucial in problem solving when we are trying to
generate all possible causes of a problem or
innovative solutions to problems
• If the problem you are dealing with is difficult
enough to warrant a team effort, you need to get
the full benefit of team brainpower
Brainstorming - How?
• Define area for brainstorm
• Select team
• Explain problem/opportunity
• Agree rules of the brainstorm
• Generate and record ideas
• Order ideas if appropriate
• Discuss ideas
TRADITIONAL RULES OF BRAINSTORMING::
SET TIME LIMITNEVER CRITICISE - IDEAS OR PEOPLEGET LOTS OF IDEAS - HOWEVER CRAZYRECORD ALL IDEAS - ALL MUST BE
HIGHLY VISIBLETIME OUT - REVIEW LIST IN SILENCEADD ANY FINAL IDEASEVALUATE IDEAS
BRAINSTORMING
AN EXERCISE IN CREATIVE THINKING
Brainstorming Exercise
• Creative Ideas
• How might prisons be abolished?
Cause & Effect Diagrams
• To structure the output of a brainstorming
session for further analysis
• To generate a team view of (possible)
causal relationships
Cause & Effect Diagrams - How?
• Brainstorm and then fit the output on to the diagram
• Decide which factors to further investigateCUSTOMER
DISSATISFACTION
Lack ofKnowledge
UnfriendlyService
Men
Not FreshMade
MethodMaterials
CheapTea
Milk notFresh
Too Strong
Urn notClean
Water notHeatedAdequately
Machines Environment
DecorOutdated
Cafe notClean
Cause & Effect Diagrams - Tips
• Be creative, don’t allow options to be
closed down by assumptions
• Use the categories appropriate to your
problem
• Never cross items off completely
• Focus on what you can control
• Use the ‘Five Whys’ to ensure that you
have got to the right depth
Cause and Effect Exercise
• Using the output from the previous brainstorming exercise, construct an appropriate cause and effect diagram
THE MORPHOLOGICAL MATRIX
• Break down a goal into its component parts or attributes.
• Consider these parts separately.• Recombine them to find new
solutions.
MORPHOLOGICAL MATRIX EXAMPLEDress Location MusicWild West Boat String Quartet
Bus Driver Rooftop Terrace Jazz Band
Film Star In the Country DJ
School Underground Club Acoustic
Begins with ‘P’ Warehouse Pianist
Someone else Posh Hotel Gospel Choir
1960s At Home Abba Tribute
Medieval By the seaside Blues Guitarist
Toga Favourite bar Karaoke
Black Tie Shop Window Sounds of Nature
Generation of New Ideas
• 10 items in each of the 3 categories gives 1,000 possible combinations.
• Add one more column (e.g. Food), gives 10,000 possible combinations.
• In teams, generate 3 new ideas for a surprise party from the matrix that you would not normally have considered.
THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?